Watch Me Write Cursed NaNoWriMo
2:33 PM
Hello Everyone!
Well, it's officially October now which means November is less than a month away. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November with the goal of writing a novel which is 50,000+ words in length by the end of the month. I've been planning my novel, Cursed, since August and thought I would share a bit of my planning process with you. I am modeling my video off of the one Alyssa Carlier did on her blog The Devil Orders Takeout
Novel: Cursed
Genre/Category: Fantasy
A novel loosely based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty written in the spirit of the TV show Once Upon a Time
Synopsis: When it comes to casting curses, your bad name
is all you have. Cyndra makes curses for a living. She cast her first sleeping
curse when she was ten years old. Phillip is a professional curse breaker. He's
saved princesses from evil witches and freed entire kingdoms from deadly
curses. The two of them meet when Phillip breaks one of Cyndra’s sleeping
curses and is transported, with boils covering his face, to Cyndra’s workshop
as punishment. The witch and wizard instantly take a disliking to each other
and plan to never cross paths again if they can help it. When a prominent
wizard is struck down by a killing curse, the dead wizard’s family hires Phillip
to track down the person who created the curse. The magic used in the killing
curse bears a striking resemblance to Cyndra’s magic, and when another powerful
wizard she had a quarrel with is felled by the same curse, all clues point to
Cyndra as the culprit. Desperate to clear her name, Cyndra convinces Phillip
she can prove her innocence by helping him catch the real killer.
What to expect in Cursed:
- A strong, independent female protagonist who is a reluctant heroine
- A Han Solo and Princess Leia type of relationship with the genders reversed (meaning the character similar to Han Solo is female and the Princess Leia like character is male)
- Curses, spells, and general mayhem
This is the first time I am actually planning out my novel before I write it. Previously, I did little to no plotting prior to writing which resulted in dozens and dozens of unfinished stories. I have the horrible habit of only writing when I'm inspired and then dropping the project when I lose that initial spark. So, this time around, I'm planning before I write. If you have any tips or tricks you use to plot your novels, please share them in a comment below.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What do you do to prepare for it?
4 comments
This is awesome! In the spirit of Once Upon A Time? SOLD! Your novel premise sounds amazing, and I am so on board! I'll be doing Nano as well so I'm glad I'll have someone to share the journey with! You can add me as a buddy! I'm "Welldonedarling" on Nano. Gah, now this just made me want to start planning!
ReplyDeleteI totally want to try this #watchmewrite thing now. How did you film it?
Thanks, Adelyn! Your support means a lot to me. I'll be sure to add you on NaNo. Yay writing buddies! What story will you be writing for NaNo?
ReplyDeleteI used Quicktime player to film my #watchmewrite video (open up Quicktime and then click on File and select New Screen Recording). I then imported the video to iMovie to do the voiceover and add in the background music. It did take me a little while to get the hang out it, and I kept having to re-record myself during the voiceover because I tripped over my words a bit. Also, I started out with a five minute video but then edited it down to a little over a minute in length. I had to do this because Blogger won't allow you to upload a video larger than 100MB. Overall, though, I'm happy with the way it turned out. I would love to see your #watchmewrite if you decide to try it out:)
Oh my, I'm SO HAPPY you did #WatchMeWrite! It's one of my fav post types to do, so it's awesome you enjoyed it enough to emulate. And c'mon, gender-flipped Leia/Han? OUAT-ish Sleeping Beauty retelling? CURSES? COUNT ME IN. And yay, someone else who powerpoint-plans! Thanks so much for doing a #WatchMeWrite!
ReplyDeletePS: Reading your comment reply above and thought I'd add that I normally upload on Google Drive because it's much prettier in HD. I know a couple of other people like to do it on Vimeo, which is equally pretty but the free version has some annoying restrictions.
Thanks for the comment, Alyssa! I was inspired by your #WatchMeWrite video and knew I had to try it out myself.
ReplyDeleteAw, I'm glad to hear you like my story idea:) I'm excited to write it!
I'll have to try uploading on Google Drive next time. I'm still learning when it comes to technology.