Popping the NaNo cherry

November is my least favourite month of the year, at least in Norway. It’s cold, dark, depressing, and oh so very far away from next summer. Some years I travel back to Australia, other years we try to go somewhere, anywhere, even if it’s just to London or somewhere else in Europe, to take a break from the oppressive dullness that is November in the north. This year, however, we have no possibility of escape, and must struggle through on wits alone. So what do I do? Why, I set myself a goal that will either boost me high on the shoulders of success and send me on toward Christmas with the sound of my own fanfare trumpeting in my ears, or it will smother me under the weight of my own over-ambition.

Yes, I’m finally doing it: this year I’ve taken up the NaNoWriMo challenge, and will attempt to write the first draft of the final Eidolon Cycle book in November. That’s an entire first draft in one single month. Considering the first two books took six or so months each, and the current one is almost halfway done after almost a year, that’s no small gauntlet to toss at my own feet. But I didn’t quit my day job to make life easier for myself, and I’m all for pushing my (writing) limits.

So, besides editing a novel, a novella, trying to write my own third book, submission reading, and a ton of ebook formatting, typesetting and proofreading work, the remains of October will be spent plotting, planning, writing character sketches, and plastering my office walls with sticky enough notes to make a serial killer envious, all in an attempt to prepare for the real work ahead.

The final book, Primrose, is completely different again from the first three, and will attempt to view the entire eidolon world through the eyes of an outsider, not privy to its secrets. Set in the 1980s this time, the research (and reminiscence) will be fun to say the least, but it’s a whole new level of difficult to write about a world that the main character doesn’t see, hear, or understand. But, as I said, pushing the writing limits is what keeps me inspired.

If you’re attempting NaNo yourself, and want to be buddies, find my profile page here: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/zoe-harris

Wish me luck! And if you don’t hear from me in November, it’s not because I don’t love you, it’s because I’m busy wondering what the hell I’ve gotten myself into. If you don’t hear from me in December, send out a search party…