Chapter One: NaNo Prep-o

Word Count: 9,000/50,000

Hello, everyone!

I am so excited to start this blog! As you know, NaNoWriMo started today and it is already going better than last year. In my first post, I mentioned that I had only gotten a little over 10,000 words of that story, and I just hit 9,000 of this new one!

I suppose I should tell you all about my novel. The working title is Remembrance, though should I ever do anything with it, I doubt that I will use that title. However, using that title, the awesome WriMo yoha_ahoy made this banner for me:

As you can probably deduce from the image, my novel is historical fiction. The story revolves around Ruthie Halpert, who is fifteen when the London Blitz begins in September of 1940. She lives with her parents and her nine year old brother Noah. The story begins with the first air raid and the next day at school, it is announced that one of Ruthie's classmates' flat was bombed and he and his younger brother are missing. Ruthie is quite distressed over this, but there's little she and her friend Nora and Annie can do.

A week later, Ruthie goes to the cinema with Annie and Nora and there is an air raid drill. The manager of the theatre herds them all down to the basement, and on the way there, Ruthie loses her grip on her friends' hands. Once the drill is over, Ruthie locates Annie right away but there is no sign of Nora. After looking for hours, there is still no sign of her.

Frightened for their children's safety, Ruthie's parents send her and her brother to live with relatives in the country. Annie, too, is sent away. But both girls are determined to find their friend and decide to go back to London to search for her.

I don't know how to summarize the rest of the novel without giving away the ending, so I'm going to stop there! I'm also pretty terrible at summarizing, so I hope that doesn't sound too boring.

Yesterday was my NaNoWriMo prep day. I did a few things to get ready for this crazy month.

Outlining: I had semi-outlined beginning in August, so I had most of my plot and characters. I was inspired by Maureen Johnson's "storyboarding" wall and tried to make a mini-version of my own, but lost heart halfway through.

These kinds of things aren't really my style, so while I might return to it, I can't guarantee anything, especially since it's almost word for word what is on my computer.

Writing Space: I also decided to try only using my desk for my writing unless I get absolutely desperate. I tend to just bring my laptop over to my bed and do things from there. However, I really want to finish this novel and I feel like writing on my bed will be a detriment, so I made a space on my desk.

As you can see, I am attempting to eat healthy on my first day of NaNo, but I expect that the Halloween candy my mother sent me, which is behind the water bottle there, will tempt me eventually.

As for using my desk as opposed to my bed, I feel this choice is already paying off. I am much more focused. I have also decided that for at least two hours of my writing time a day, I will not watch tv or movies. I love to watch movies while I work on things, but for this project, I feel it will be too much of a distraction.

Music: Somehow, I got a pass for my Zune program that allows me to download as much music as I want for a month, so I went crazy yesterday. While I downloaded a bunch of musicals, I also looked for movie soundtracks. While I'll detail my music selections in another blog, I have to say that I searched for music from the 1940's and found some real gems. I am now even more convinced that I was born in the wrong time period. I am in love with this music.

This Blog: I am going to try to discuss not only my novel, but one topic relating to writing itself. It might be NaNo specific, it might not. While I have a few ideas jotted down, I don't have nearly enough for the entire month, so if you've got ideas, put them in the comments!

Speaking of the comments, I believe I have set my blog so that anyone may leave a comment for me. I'd love to hear from you. If you have criticism about my writing, I ask that it be stated constructively or not at all. If you do not like my writing, please do not waste your time insulting me. It will make me sad and I will delete the comment and forget about it.

That's all for today! I hope you're all as excited for this month as I am!