Thank goodness November is over. Technically, it was a #NaNoFail since I didn't hit my 50k words. Boo.
But I can't call it a complete failure. I did a ton of writing…so, in the end, I totally came out a winner.
Looking back, I think that, my NaNoWriMo handicap aside, I wasn't focused enough on one project. Over the past few weeks, I had two different WIPs competing for attention. Two totally different books. Two completely unrelated worlds. I started out with the first book in my newest urban fantasy series, CHARM CITY, as my November project but then switched gears completely and changed it to a paranormal mystery called GHOSTLIGHTS OF POTTER PARK.
I plotted that second book like I've never plotted before and started banging out that story. With a plot outline right next to me, I just had to follow the story along and connect all the points. Should have been a walk in the park, right?
Wrong. I got hung up on a small detail and the wheels stopped turning before I even hit 11K.
I tried researching my way around it but you know what Internet research is like. You do very well for about fifteen minutes until you realize you're approaching info overload and the next thing you know, you're reading Buzzfeed articles.
Writing came to a complete halt before Thanksgiving due to a sad family event and I didn't even open MS Word for a week. Yes, I felt guilty. No, there was no other alternative. My writing was 100% completely mental for nearly two weeks.
Bad timing, November. You should have been more willing to work with me.
When I was finally ready to get back to work, it wasn't GHOSTLIGHTS that I opened. It was CHARM CITY.
I'd missed that story. Exorcists battling addiction and half-breeds torn between the Light and the Dark? Can't resist it. (There may even be a hell gate or two.) The story takes place in Baltimore and in Boston, two places where I enjoyed spending a lot of time. Writing CHARM CITY is like going back for a visit. Except, there's demons.
Unlike GHOSTLIGHTS, I didn't get hung up on the actual setting for CHARM CITY. In fact, Charm City is a nickname for Baltimore (made for a very happy coincidence considering I left loose an unconventional magician in Baltimore.) That story just comes out every time I open the manuscript. I flip to a page, I watch it unfold in my mind, and I write it down.
I love stories that do that.
And I think I'm going to start posting it on Wattpad. I've been feeling a little bad about hiding that story away so I'll be posting a chapter each week on Wattpad. Once I get the first chapter up, I'll made a better announcement with a cover and blurb and all that fun bookly goodness.
If you're on Wattpad, look for me at:
And be sure to follow me so that you know when each part of that story goes up. I'd love for you to read along and let me know what you think about each chapter as the story unfolds.
If you're not on Wattpad, go join. It's fun, it's free, and it will keep you up to your eyeballs in stuff to read. Who doesn't love that?
At any rate, by the time November and NaNoWriMo wrapped up, I didn't earn a winner's badge…but technically, I still won. GHOSTLIGHTS may have clocked in at mid-10K, but CHARM CITY was at 40k on November 30th. Two stories, fifty thousand words.
Sounds like a #NaNoWin, after all.
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