Preparing NaNoWriMo '21

I will 'win' at NaNoWriMo this year! My personal best is 37,000 words, way back in 2014. But 2021 will be the year I get to the 50,000-word mark.

WHAT IS NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo is an acronym for National.Novel.Writing.Month

Only it's gone beyond national to a global stage. And it's a competition with yourself to write as much as you can within the 30 days of November.

A 50,000-word goal in a month is more of a guideline than an actual rule. The word count can be anything that is usually outside your comfort zone.

BY THE NUMBERS

How many words or pages do you usually produce within any given month? Increase that by 10% So, if you write 10,000 words, or 10 pages, in a month then increase that to 10,100 words or 11 pages.

Never written before? Then take NaNoWriMo's generic 50,000-word goal and try your best. Record your results and next year beat your own 'score'.

How many days can you write? This year, I know I can write 25 days out of the 30 in November due to ... life.

How many words do you need to strive for every (available) day? Now, take your word goal, divide by the number of days you can work, and that's your daily writing goal.

REMEMBER TO REWARD YOURSELF

When we have our 'big picture' it's now time to create our own milestones. Because I want to reach the 50,000-word mark this year I've created rewards at each 10,000-word milestone. Rewards should always be deeply personal to create the desire to be obtained. My rewards will be:

1. Tim tams - flavour to be decided on later and shared with no one.
2. A poster of a library shelf - I grew out of my poster phase when I grew out of my teen years. However, I'm also currently going through a midlife crisis and I saw a beautiful poster I'd like to buy and blu-tac to my wall.
3. A movie at the cinema with a glass of red wine - my local cinema serves alcohol as a cinema beverage. And I'd love to take the time to zone out in front of a big screen.
4. A hardcover book of my choice at any price.
5. A steak dinner at my favourite restaurant.

WHAT IS JASMINE WOLFE DOING FOR 2021?

My 50,000-word goal is to hammer out a first draft for this beauty:

THE 'HIGH CONCEPT' PITCH:

The following 12 steps have been taken from the book Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias. Readers need to be aware that all 12 steps don't need to be included to develop your own story but I'm going to try.

1. Find the unique hook in your story, e.g.: a unique setting and/or a unique character:

Resurrection's setting will be Van Diemans Land circa 1830s with the Black War as the backdrop.

The unique thing about my main character, Mairin, is that she will be a vampire. But also an Irish woman who deliberately got herself transported to Van Diemans Land. Though it's common for the Irish to deliberately commit crimes to get transported it's rare to be actually transported to Van Dieman's Land. Lucky for me it's not unheard of so my Mairin convict vampire girl will land on this heart-shaped island.

2. What's the worst that can happen?

For a vampire? Being discovered and staked in the heart. Although, am finding out that some Irish beliefs for dealing with a vampire are to bury them alive, vertically headfirst into the ground. But a good ol' burn-them-at-the-stake also kills vampires. I will need to make an executive decision on this in my draft.

3. Contrast characters (create odd couples)

Mairin and the Quakers.

If my convict Mairin is Irish, presumably Irish Catholic, and a vampire. Then I will write how she will obtain a ticket-of-leave (permission to leave the prisons to work for the length of a prison term) to work on an English, Quaker farm. Beautifully human.

4. Contrast character with the environment (create a fish out of water)

Australia is known as the 'sunburnt country'. Though Van Dieman's Land, known as Tasmania/Lutruwita, is thought to be the coldest state in Australia it's still sunnier than England and Ireland.

5. Add a second idea to the mix. X meets Y

Writing for Emotional Impact gives the example Tootsie meets Kramer v. Kramer = Mrs Doubtfire, for two ideas coming together.

Resurrection can be Byzantium meets Nightingale.

I can change the perspective of the story for Mairin to be telling her centuries-old life story to someone in the modern age. Similar also to Interview with a Vampire. But hasn't this trope been done to death?

Another aspect of Byzantium I could use is the mother/daughter relationship. Perhaps, Mairin the convict develops a maternal bond with a child of the Quaker family she is assigned to while being haunted by the mother left behind in Ireland?

Nightingale is set against the Black War in Van Diemans Land. The same time frame I want in Resurrection. I hope to depict Tasmania/Lutruwita's beautiful landscape half as well as this movie shows it.

6. Change traditional story elements, e.g: West Side Story is basically Romeo and Juliet, and Strangers on the Train became the comedy Throw Mamma from the Train.

The original story I wanted to use as a frame was the Easter resurrection, and that's where I get my title: Resurrection.

Mairin needs to reject her Catholic faith to embrace her vampirism. Or, use her Catholic faith as justification to be a vampire - not sure how this might be done just yet. This is another executive decision I need to make.

Mairin, by the way, is an Irish form of Mary.

7. Reverse predictable plots

Right here right now I haven't decided on the plot. I will get to this at a later date. But kept it in for my readers who might want to follow the 12 steps in full.

8. Create an interesting inciting incident event

Already decided that the inciting incident will be a 'flashback' scene to the actual transformation from a human waif into a vampiric predator.

9. Take it to the extreme. Write: The ultimate (insert) from Hell

Examples from Writing for Emotional Impact: The dog from Hell = Cujo; Roommate from Hell = Single White Female; Nanny from Hell = Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

The ultimate vampire from Hell?

And yet Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Could Mairin be the ultimate scorned woman from Hell?

I believe I'll go with the idea Mairin has the ultimate rage from Hell. Mairin's rage is so destructive she makes a Faustian bargain to become a vampire. Her rage would be so quiet that no one will suspect it's there. But she's out to destroy people's lives (kill them as a vampire does).

10. Emphasize or add a time limit

Mairin is nearer the end of her ticket-of-leave than I originally suspected her to be. For her prison term, she is limited to this Quaker farm, but once the Black War is over and Mairin's ticket expires she would be free to go anywhere and plague anyone.

11. Emphasize a setting, arena, or world that is not written about

Though Australians know their colonial history I haven't read a horror story where a vampire gets transported here. I definitely think that's unique.

12. Make the concept an interesting dilemma

Have you heard of Sophie's Choice? Where a mother has to choose which of her children lives and which one dies. How would a mother even begin to make that choice?

I'll need to brainstorm this idea a bit more. It's a vampire story so the stakes automatically become life and death.