Saved From Blithering Dust!: A NaNoWriMo Update

Greetings, people from the real world! Today, I have extricated myself from my solitary lair-- a hole whose depth knows no end to the amounts of tasks that require my personal assistance to complete. Menial things like chores and schoolwork and calming crying babies.. And before my very eyes, I watched my word count lead drop like a piece of lead falling through air. With nothing but feeble attempts to stop it. A tragedy, to be sure.


Making the tragedy even worse, like that of the likes of Shakespeare, was the fear, the paranoia, that accompanied it. I was deathly afraid that my story would not make it to 50,000 words! I'd had concerns in the beginning, but none so deep as the despair I felt today when I realized, I'd hit the climax of the novel at a measly 23,000 words! You cannot fathom how much it pained my heart to admit so. I simply did not know what to do.

Enter: Nicole.

*bling!*

I called Nicole and we talked for a mere 45 minutes on the phone and she had my story completely up and kicking'!!! She helped me develop my characters a bit more, fill in a few holes, and, last but not least, she offered many ideas for me to use to extend my plot (and word count) Yay Nicole!! As I later reported to my family, she truly saved my novel from becoming a blithering pile of dust (as the title of this post says.)

In case you are confused at this pnt in time, I shall explain. November is National Novel Writing Month-- a wonderful word filled challenge for writers across the world to write a wacky  amount of words in thirty days, or one month. (impressive alliteration though, huh?) the goal is the aforementioned 50,000 words. I successfully reached the goal the last two years and I'm hoping to again this year, thanks to Nicole!! (I swear, if I publish the beastly thing, I will dedicate it to her!)

My story this year is a modern retelling of the classic story of Hansel and Gretel, with a few new twists. The basic plot is this: After moving into their new step-Father's country mansion, two rebellious city kids get mixed up in something way beyond their initial suspicions of the old man living next door...

(*SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!* the old man who lives next door happens to be a cannibal who kidnaps children and eats them! Disclaimer: Although the author enjoys writing about cannibalism, she does it endorse or condone the practice in any way.)

Fun Facts:

-My decision to write a retelling of H&G was made several months ago when Bethany and I were brainstorming ideas we could write. And we decided to do an adaptation of a fairy tale and swap novels afterward! Just to see the differences and similarities. Because it'd be fun(!) I later realized that it was quite a challenge.

-Originally,  my story was to be set in cyberspace. But as I worked with the story, I realized that it was turning into more of a incestuous Internet romance (in which the brother and sister meet in an Internet chat room and inadvertently fall in love) and less of a tale about Hansel and Gretel. (I was kind of going for a Luke/Princess Leia type thing.... But not.) I was all prepared to write it too (as I had no better ideas and we were not two weeks from November first) but when I told Bethany, she strongly urged me to change my story. (Probably because she didn't want to read it, which is understandable.) Please don't ask me how I came up with that plot idea or question my moral soundness. Because, while I desire to be completely honest with my real life readers, I do not desire to spend the rest of my life living in a hole of shame. That's a reasonable request, I should think.

All that to say, that I have written a total of 0 words today. And yet this post is nearing the 700 word mark. But I shall leave you with hose thoughts for now. Til next time!