NaNo Update

An unexpected thing happened last week.

The Theatre Ghost Book fizzled. It has a nice hook. Lots of people were enthusiastic about it. I mean, I like ghosts and theatre and hot musician boys, and I would love to read a book that combines those things. I’m not sure why I didn’t love writing it. Maybe it’s just not the right time for this story and me. For whatever reasons, sitting down to work on it felt like work.

I looked at my tattoo, which I got to remind me how much I loved working on Thrice and what a joyful book it was to write, and I decided to put the TGB aside for now. The fun challenge of NaNo is not worth writing a book I’m not in love with. But I didn’t want to quit because, well, I’m competitive like that.

Friday I brainstormed a bunch. What would I love enough that it would keep me occupied while Thrice is out on subs soon? What kind of characters and relationships, what kind of world, would keep me interested enough to write every day for the rest of November?

I came up with something I really love. It’s a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, from the point of view of Kira, her bastard half-fey best friend. It’s more of a romance than my other stories; there will definitely be a love triangle, if not something of a love pentagon. I’ve never tried to write a fairy-tale adaptation, or such a straight-up fantasy, or a story that involves a quest before. I’m really really excited.

I’m so glad I decided to do NaNo. Without that impetus, I might not be writing this story, and I’m so glad I am.

Also: I started using Freedom for Windows last night. I am terrible about getting stuck in the story and beginning the vicious “check Twitter-Facebook-email” cycle. Freedom forces me to stick with the story and get myself unstuck and some nice moments came from that yesterday.

Also-also: Agent Jim just emailed me with nice things to say about the first few revised chapters of Thrice. Now that I know I’m headed in the right direction, I can get back to work on that, too. Hooray! After book-club tonight, I have NO PLANS AT ALL for the rest of the week and the entire weekend. I foresee some coffee-shop writing dates with the brilliant playwright husband.