Stories and Book Talk

Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • NaNo Prep 2023 – Week One

    NaNo Prep 2023 – Week One

    NaNo Prep :Week One – (Sept 18 – 24, 2023)

    Activity: Developing a Story Idea

    This week starts the first week of the NaNo Prep 101 course. Let’s go on a little development journey. My goal is to come up with a usable story idea that I’m passionate about. I have seven days to come up with a good one. I’ll be honest here and confess that I’ve probably spent the past week thinking about this idea. So, it will be two weeks in total.

    I’ve drawn inspiration from the NaNoWriMo theme this year. The theme is “More than one way to tell a fairy tale”. My imagination is on overdrive. Whether I can keep this up is up to the next few weeks and what I can get down.

    Influences that I can’t ignore: I’ve leaned heavily on YA books I’ve read.

    Then, I’ve drawn a dash of inspiration from the stories my maternal grandma used to tell us in her kitchen before bedtime. Of ogres in the forest, and an old witch who would get on your back and refuse to get off if you carried her…shiver.

    And so, here goes.

    My NaNoWriMo 2023 Book Title is: –

    Book One
The Hidden Queen by E.K.
 
The Story is: - Airi/Aisha lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a harmonious life with her family. She is a good student and has spent school holidays at her grandma’s farm. Airi/Aisha has done so for ages. Until one day…when she discovers a secret in her grandmother’s farm.

Current status: - I’m still living in Undecided, Ohio with a large part of this story and it needs work. I hope the next week will be full of more information. The good thing is that I’ve finally decided on a title. Yay! I even made a book cover. Useful procrastination. ^_^

    I’m also sharing this idea as it is not a new idea. It has been written by others, a lot masterful, Chronicles of Narnia comes to mind. In between the small paragraph above, there has been an infinite collection of chicken-scratch writing on notebooks. A thousand crossed out thoughts and a character name that may change. That is the process. Yours might be more elaborate or simpler. I hope you have a great one!

    I’m Looking forward to NaNo Prep Week Two Sept 25 – Oct 1. is Characters Week.

    Wanna join in? Sign up here: NaNoWriMo

  • NaNoWriMo 2023

    NaNoWriMo 2023

    I’m excited to be part of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) experience this year. I’ve done this before, but for some reason 2023 is feeling more exciting, so I’m going with it and hoping to see what I get out of this experience by the end of November 2023.

    What is NaNoWriMo about?

    • It is a choice to take on a writing challenge and complete a novel or write 50k words of a novel in November. The challenge is done in daily bits. That is, writing 1, 667 words every day to make 50k words in thirty days. This is without worrying about how much editing you need, or how well the plot is flowing. You can worry about all that once you get to November 30th. You can choose to jump in and start on November 1st, 2023 or plan your novel six weeks ahead (NaNo Prep) and start your writing on November 1st. Sounds manageable, right?

    It is a fun challenge to take on and have fun with it! The experience at least leaves me with the start or the bulk of a novel, or an idea that I can take to the next level.

    NaNo Prep starts on September 18th, 2023. Follow as I work to get a story from idea stage to 50k at the end of November 30th, 2023. I’ll do my best to post this process on this blog in notes and emojis ^_^.

    Wanna join in? Sign up here for NaNoWriMo.