NaNo challenge, day 7
Day 7 – Where’s your favorite place to hunker down and write?
I’m writing most of this novel over my lunch breaks and on my bus rides, and it’s actually working out very well. Reason being that I need some sort of time pressure to sit down and churn out 2000+ words, and having that deadline of “welp, lunch is over in an hour!” really helps.
I also like beds. Comfy comfy Tempurpedic’d beds. XD
NaNo challenge, day 6
Day 6 – What is your one biggest stressor related to forcing yourself to write at least 50,000 words in a span of 30 days?
Honestly, it’s probably the fact that I have a lot of other commitments on my plate right now, and I’m afraid I’ll neglect something. Luckily, the boyfriend has been very good at making sure I get in my writing time, and we’ve put our other projects on a temporary hold(ish; if we hit up some investors this month, I wouldn’t hesitate to set First Run aside). Since I’ve been writing it on lunch breaks and bus rides, I’m kind of worried I’ll get sick of doing that in my only me-time, but since it’s only for 24 more days, I’ll probably be okay.
NaNo challenge, day 5
Day 5 – Name two songs from your playlist that you feel are connected with your novel in some way, and explain how they are.
“The Voices” by Josh Woodward. I’m friends with this artist, and his songs have served as theme songs for my characters from the last two projects that I actually finished, so I asked him if he had any “space-y songs." This song that he recommended actually fits Gus’s inner turmoil pretty well, so it’s her theme song now.
"Angels” by Owl City. I know, it’s a little weird to connect an Adam Young song to a smut project, but this is so much more a character’s sexual journey than smut for smut’s sake, so it encompasses the wonder about the universe that characterizes Gus.
NaNo challenge, day 4
Day 4 – What genre is your novel? Why did you pick it?
My genre is sci-fi romance, a.k.a. smut in space. I chose it for a few reasons:
- I wanted to write about a character’s sexual awakening, but I didn’t want to do a traditional romance. And I write better stories when they’re set in space.
- I think it’s a totally marketable idea, and I’d like to finish a NaNo that actually can get published.
- I’d started another draft of this and liked what I was doing but not how, so I thought I’d do a reboot for NaNo.
NaNo challenge, days 1-3 (catching up!)
Day 1 – Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? If so, which years and what end result? If not (or even if so, for that matter), what’s your connection to writing? Why do you want to participate this year?
Yep, many times before! I participated in ‘04, ’05, ’06, ’08, ’09, and ’10. The only year I’ve finished was last year, when I wrote out my previous year in an urban fantasy novel. Before that, I think the furthest I got was about 10,000 words. I don’t recall what my ’04 or ’06 novels were about, but I do remember my ’05 novel was a shapeshifter romance set in the destruction of Hurricane Katrina (a real sensitive one, I am. Actually I handled it pretty well, I think, for being 17), my ’08 novel was an attempt to write my epic multi-mythology story, and my ’09 novel was about a wrongly-convicted stuntman.
Day 2 – What’s the title of your story? Why did you choose the name you did?
My novel is called “First Run.” This title works for a few reasons: one, it sums up the idea of this being the main character’s first exposure to her sexuality, and two, because the little crafts they fly are called first-runs. I thought it was appropriate for the first of a planned trilogy.
Day 3 – Pick one of your female characters. Introduce your readers to her, from her point of view and her words only.
“Hey, I’m Gus, Gus Gillis. Don’t tell him, but I’m only on the Guardian because this is where my boyfriend Koby got deployed. Seriously, he doesn’t know that. And he doesn’t know I’d do anything else for him, too. Well, except all of that…eesh, dirty touching stuff. In sessions, of course, I’m sure he does lots of things to me, but since it’s only in my mind it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I’m just trying to be the best first-run pilot I can be. I love space, but I’m glad I share it with Koby and my dog Storm.”