The Road to NaNoWriMo - Part 1

Well as you may know (or not but you soon will) I have decided to jump off at the deep end and signed up to do NaNoWriMo this November. Basically National Novel Writing Month is about kicking your inner editor to the kerb and try to churn out at least 50,000 words of a story in 30 Days. It doesn't have to be grammatically accurate or make a whole lot of sense just get the words down on the page in time (December is for editing). It's insane and hopefully will be a whole boatload of fun. You can go to write-ins with fellow Nanoers in your area (I know of at least 8 people near me doing it) and battle against your writing buddies to write the most in a limited period of time - also known as Word Wars.

There's also the Forums - here you can find a melting pot of useful facts and trivia to use in your story along with tons of people willing to help you work through any problem you may have e.g. plotting, research, techno, motivational, etc. But beware they can be a serious time-suck so make sure that come November you're writing more on your novel than you are posting on the forums! :P

So far I think I'm doing quite well with my planning considering that it's gonna be my first time attempting it. Some people don't like to bother with planning before November and just fly by the seat of the pants for the whole month but frankly if I don't have some fairly concrete outlines of what the heck I'm doing then I will never make it past the first chapter.

I have my idea, I have a reasonable grasp (at the moment) of what's gonna happen although there's still a *lot* of gaps to fill, I have my main character pretty fleshed out and will be starting on the other characters in due course. I've been doing a fair bit of thinking about the world that my story is set in and the rules by which it operates cos I really don't want to get bogged down part-way through wondering whether I can get away with something in the story. I haven't gotten round to writing detailed chapter-by-chapter outlines yet but I will have to get on that once I know how many chapters this darn thing will be :P.

Oh what's that? You want to actually know what I'm gonna be writing about? Ok fine I shall try and summarise what the basic plot is for you and introduce the characters I have so far.

Plot
Everyone knows that Paris is the City of Light but that's just one half of greater whole. The humans of Paris live in what is known as Haut-Paris and they go about their lives never knowing that another shadowy world is just beyond the ether and full of magical beings and creatures. This world is known as Sous-Paris and is home to Witches, Warlocks, Vampires, Werewolves, Succubi, Incubi, Faeries and hosts of other paranormal creatures who live under the rule of the King of Paris.
Our heroine is a witch who was raised in Haut-Paris with no knowledge of her heritage until her Grand-mere brings her to Sous in order to learn how to use her powers. But... there's a snag. For some reason in the three years that she has known about magic our heroine has never been able to cast a spell more complex than lighting a candle. As the story begins she is close to giving up on ever being able to work as a fully-fledged witch but one day as she sets out for work (In her Grand-mere's magic shop for both inhabitants of Haut & Sous) she gets caught up in an explosion of magic which changes her life and the life of the young Englishman whose car she inadvertedly crashes into when the explosion knocks her off her feet.

Thus begins the crazy, magic-filled adventure that is (currently) One Night in Sous-Paris. There's much more to it than that little synopsis but I don't want to bore y'all with a massive rambling description. Oh and a slight disclaimer - Just because there is a Female main character and a (admittedly rather handsome) Male main character *doesn't* mean that the plot revolves around them two getting it on. It's gonna be more adult-orientated for reasons that will become clear when you get to know Celestine my main character.

Since this post is already lengthy enough I shall leave the character introductions until either tomorrow or early next week. Do comment with your thoughts on the idea and if you're planning on doing Nano then tell me in the comments as well! :D

A bientot mes amies
LadyV