Saturday, October 6, 2012

Warming up for November

Sorry for the three-month hiatus! I've been insanely busy with starting High School, dance, and theater rehearsals. Enough of that.

While checking twitter this morning, I saw that TCWT had retweeted Lily Jenness' tweet about her blog post  for yesterday (Click here to read her post!) I remembered signing up, but I didn't know what day I was. By chance, I happened to check on my assigned day!

Luckily, I have a two-hour break between dance and theater when I can type this up. But enough of the back story.

NaNoWriMo will be an adventure for me this year. I have participated and won the last two years, but I have an added complication this year: the show I'm in goes up on November 2nd, and we have eight shows between then and the 10th. I'll pretty much be writing very little for the first third of the month. I told my mom I might consider starting on the 15th and going until December 15th, or going for only 30,00 words instead, but I know myself, and I know that I will be kicking myself for a long time if I don't go for the full 50,000. I haven't decided for sure yet, so don't hold me to that, but I'm pretty certain.

My story this year will be--you guessed it--another fantasy. It's still very much in the planning stages, but it will be called The Time-Weaver's Apprentice. It centers around the idea that there is a factory where people's lives are created. Each person has a piece of yarn--the color of your strand reflects your personality. The strands are woven together; some strands weave closely together (like friends or family) and sometimes they suddenly veer away from each other (when there is a falling-out.) When your strand ends, you die. The "time-weaver", who is in charge of all this mess, is roughly 2,000 years old. (I'm toying with the idea of having her be Jesus' cousin or something.) She's really crabby and not very nice--sitting at a massive loom for two thousand years will do that to you. Over time, as the population has grown, she's had to hire more and more additional workers, whenever the current population is too much for the current staff to handle. Now, though, the Time-Weaver is getting too old to manage things, and she's looking for an apprentice to train to be the next Time-Weaver for the next 2,000 years.

The main character is a 14-year-old (?) girl named Helen. (I'm still looking for a last name.) She somehow meets the Time-Weaver and learns about her. Meanwhile, Helen's best friend dies. (I'm not sure if it will be suicide or a car accident.) Helen becomes obsessed with the idea of fixing the tapestry and getting her friend back.

(I'm running out of time, so I'll just write a sample opening paragraph or two.)

SAMPLE:

Helen is a practical name. There is nothing extravagant about it. Even the best crooner in the world could not make it sound melodic. It is plain, like the girl it indicates. It has next to no nicknames. It is short, perfect for yelling up the stairs when she is in trouble.

Unfortunately, this is the name to which I belong. I wish it was a frivolous tagline, something that rolled off your tongue instead of choking in the back of your throat.


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That will be all for today! Thanks for reading! As always, I would love any comments/critiques.


The theme for this month’s blog chain is…“What are you writing for NaNoWriMo? Briefly explain how this book idea come about. Then write a mock first page for the novel.”Participants:Want to follow our blog chain? Here are the participating parties, day by day:
October 5th – http://www.lilyjenness.blogspot.com  – Lily’s Notes in the MarginsOctober 6th – http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com – Reality Is ImaginaryOctober 7th – http://onelifeglory.blogspot.ca – One Life StoryOctober 8th – http://gabrielletheauthoress.wordpress.com – Of a Writerly SortOctober 9th – http://towerofplot.blogspot.co.uk – The Leaning Tower of PlotOctober 10th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com – This Page Intentionally Left BlankOctober 11th – http://whatupdates.blogspot.com – What Updates?October 12th – http://miriamjoywrites.wordpress.com – Miriam Joy WritesOctober 13th – http://cinderscoria.blogspot.com – Between the LinesOctober 14th – http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com – Inside the Junk DoorOctober 15th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com – Musings From Neville’s NavelOctober 16th – http://kirstenwrites.wordpress.com – Kirsten Writes!October 17th – http://mirrormadeofwords.wordpress.com – A Mirror Made of WordsOctober 18th – http://theteenagewriter.wordpress.com – The Teenage WriterOctober 19th – http://platonicpencil.wordpress.com – Platonic PencilOctober 20th – http://markobrienwrites.blogspot.com – Mark O’Brien WritesOctober 21st – http://amandafoody.blogspot.com – It’s All In My HeadOctober 22nd –http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com – The Incessant Droning of a Bored Writer
October 23rd – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com – Teens Can Write, Too! (We will be announcing the topic for next month’s chain)