Yesterday was the first day of NaNoWriMo. I wrote a beginning for my story, Tales from the Argosy: The Case of the Missing Wind. Almost immediately I ran into problems and they were not the sort that got better as I continued to write. It got to the point where I thought I might be writing the wrong story. I didn’t want to hang out with these characters for 50,000 words. Bad sign!

I went down to Steve to ask his opinion. In just minutes of hearing the beginning, he knew where I was going wrong. “Why are you writing what everyone else writes? This is your fantasy world. Even if the rest of the Mediterranean is terrible, that doesn’t mean that Argosy has to be. Don’t copy other people.”

We talked a bit more about how to up the stakes for the character and what the character’s end state will be (hopefully). Since Chloris is 18 when the book begins, Steve had a lot of wisdom to impart. It turns out that Steve is wise in the ways of people that age. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. He teaches people that age and no one has ever accused Steve of being dumb.

Today my task will be to write a new beginning and work a bit on the social life in Argosy as well as gender and how it operates there. It’s going to be different than Rome, Greece, or Alexandria. Better and more interesting, I think.

Also, I need to finish a short story for Dean by tomorrow night. This one has the tentative title, “Party Ship Teacher.”

I received two rejections on Halloween, so I need to find new markets to send those stories out to, which is frustrating to deal with during NaNoWriMo. Ah well. Better to have stories to send out than not.

Ways to Succeed at NaNoWriMo

• Keep up with the word count on a daily basis. Cramming is for studying, not for writing.
• Embrace the dark. NaNoWriMo is the ultimate of writing into the dark and because it is so short, just 30 days, I should be able to keep a fair amount in my head.
• Keep a reverse outline. At the end of each chapter make quick notes about the conflict, the characters and any descriptions I may need to refer back to.
• Have fun writing! Make it something I want to do everyday by losing myself in the fun of my characters.

Word Count: 2339