The Last Dream: NaNoWriMo 2013

When all else fails, you still have your dreams... don't you?

When you have come to despise the fairy-tale figures that dominated your entire childhood, it's just your luck that the alien invasion that comes to tear your world apart brings the characters that have haunted you for years quite literally to your doorstep - and right after you discovered your sister has been lying to you (again). Seriously, it's just not your day, is it?

I thought I'd share the synopsis and cover art for the novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo this year - The Last Dream, originally called The Cloudmaker. The inspiration for it came from driving past a small white building in a field in Scotland somewhere between Edinburgh and the English border which I think was some sort of mini power station (I can't really remember what it looked like so I can't tell you what it was), but it looked to me like it should be a cloud factory. I was annoyed at myself for wanting to write about this cloud maker for NaNoWriMo, because I'd wanted to write a novel about a fangirl this year. And then I had a weird dream which involved an alien invasion, and I'd wanted to do my NaNoWriMo novel about that too. So, I combined the three together, and this is the result. :)

Will be the result. Will be the result, when it's done. (I'm currently about 2,000 words behind but there we go).

The book cover is a pretty picture of some clouds that I found on Google Images, and I used the programme Paint and the font Shelley Volante BT (the Nightwish font) for the text.

Also, I am putting the link to my NaNoWriMo profile in the list of links down on the left of the home page. Visit it if you wish. :)

NaNoWriMo

I don't know if you've heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is actually international), but it's an online challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month (specifically, the month of November). Anyone can participate, and it's free to join.

I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2010, when I was fourteen. My novel was called The Children of The Forgotten and I completed it (albeit thanks to it snowing and my school being closed towards the end of the month, so I had a couple of extra full days in which to write). It wasn't very well planned and I never managed to finish the second draft but there we go.

In 2012 I took part in Camp NaNoWriMo, which is the same thing but in the summer - like an American summer camp, but online, and for writers. That was also fun (however I believe I prefer the November event; I think because it is more well-known, so there are more people and I felt like I was part of something bigger and grander.), although again it wasn't very well planned (I began the novel on an impulse with an idea that I forced out of my head specifically so I could take part). I did finish it, but I got bored with my main character halfway through, and I'd got quite far without very much actually happening, so I killed off my annoying protagonist, threw my plotline (metaphorically) out the window, and continued the novel by following some much more interesting characters who consequently had run-ins with dancing trees, cheese-on-toast running away, people with extremely long names made of up numbers, and a disappearing donut-seller who was actually a murderer (he poisoned his donuts). It was all rather amusing, but absolutely terrible.

I also attempted NaNoWriMo in 2011 (getting little further than perhaps 5,000 words) and Camp NaNoWriMo in 2012 (I got to 41,000 words before giving up - except that I didn't give up on the idea, because I'm still working on it now. Just very, very slowly.)

Generally I'm not very happy about there being no more January examinations, because it means we have to do ALL OF THEM in the summer which just adds to the pressure (thanks a lot, like we really need that), but what it does mean is that if I have no exams in January then I don't need to spend every second of November and December revising. Which in my books can only mean one thing. NaNoWriMo. Which is particularly good because NaNoWriMo is really the only time I have ever finished a writing project that isn't a short story.

I do have an idea already prepared for this year's novel, but the likelihood is that things will get pretty random (when one has 50,000 words to write in a month and a novel with serious themes, possibly the only way to get through it is to keep oneself entertained with the occasional light-hearted and plain crazy scene. It's gonna be great.). Fingers crossed for completing it, though. :)