Looking for my Gnomes in new places

Well, I finally got around to reading through some of the critiques I got back in December for the first sample chapter of “The Gnomes are Missing.” There were some very nice things said in all those emails I got from critterfolk, and a few problems raised that I have to agree with.

I took a little while to think about it, and decided that I needed to turn the project around at this point. When I started with ‘Gnomes’ in late November, I really hadn’t planned it at all beyond ‘Hey, this will be a great thing to write now that I’m done with “Snow Job,” and maybe I can send it to CSSF novels.’ I took maybe 15 minutes to organize a few character thoughts at a local write-in and then dived into the first scene.

So, now, I’m going back to the drawing board. Based on what I’ve discovered about the Gnomes and their friends in Nanowrimo, and what people have said via critters and Six Sentence Sunday, I’ve started a new list of characters, changing around some of the personalities and relationships I began with in Discovery. Next I’m planning to do the five-page plot synopsis, (or as many pages as I can wring out of myself,) and then go back to rewrite the sample chapters with a clearer idea of where I want the story to go.

It’s going to be hard to put some elements of my trial run aside, but I’m also excited!

Six Sentence Sunday: The Snow Job

Hey! I’m very grateful for all of the great comments I’ve gotten from this series of sixes from my Camp Nano unfinished novel “The Witches of Arion”, but I felt I needed to do something different this week. Before Sunday is over, I should reach fifty thousands words on my November Nano, “Snow Job”, so I’m going to share six sentences from the beginning:

Ryan caught sight of the snow drifts piled up against the dome wall, higher than he was tall, shuddered, and hurried down the street to the Smith’s house. He didn’t remember to knock until he’d already opened the lemon-yellow front door.

“Who’s… oh, hello there, Ryan,” Mrs Smith said, hurrying into the living room. “Scarlet isn’t here – I think she has classes at the college until seven.”

“I – well, I wanted to drop by and talk to you about a birthday party for her.”

Mrs Smith shook her head slightly, and made eye contact over Ryan’s shoulder – he took a quick look out of the corner of his eyes and realized that Mr Smith was standing on the front stairs, behind him.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Nanowrimo week 1 update

Okay, so – I am trying to set my pace to reach 50,000 words at the Night of Writing Dangerously banquet in San Francisco, and since it falls on Nov 18th this year, that means my target is a somewhat staggering 2778 words per day.

And I’m just on target! My word count at the moment is 19,510 words, which is actually 7.02 days worth according to my word count spreadsheet. I was feeling a little doldrum-ey today, still several hundred words behind even after writing on the bus, but I joined in some #NanoWordSprints and made up the difference.

I kinda like the way the story’s going so far. My characters have explored a lot of the planet Chazwa and gotten involved with Jo Grant, (name subject to change, since I didn’t realize that Doctor Who had dibs,) who’s recruiting them into some undercover shenanigans to con criminals.

It’s moving a bit slowly, but then, I don’t need to get to THE END by 50k, and I’m not sure I need to finish it during November, though that would be nice. This is better than the opposite problem, of running out of story before I reach 50k.

Are you doing Nano? How’s it coming so far? Any sign of the doldrums?