Author’s Log: NaNoWriMo 2023 Day 2
Day 2 of NaNoWriMo, and I really wish that I could have gotten more plotted during Preptober because I'm already struggling.
I'm not saying that I didn't plot anything during Preptober, but it's very much a skeleton of an outline right now while I wish that it had some tendons keeping it together. Like I have down that my characters find a part of the crown in the outline and nothing more, which makes me have to think up a lot of stuff on the spot, which I have found that I am not great at. I like to have training wheels as I ride through writing a story, and right now, I'm going down a hill on a two-wheeler with no brakes, and it's scary.
But fear not. I have a plan.
Something that I like to do when I'm stuck on a writing project is look back at what inspired it. I said in an earlier post that one of the biggest inspirations for this series was the feelings of warmth and nostalgia I got watching old Barbie movies, and wouldn't you know, I have some on my iPad. In particular, I rewatched parts of Barbie as the Island Princess because Ro's journey of going to a new land is similar to my protagonist venturing into the world of magic for the first time. This made me realize some things about what I was writing so far.
One, my romance plot is severely lacking right now. I plan on this book being a fantasy romance, and for it to be that, I need to make this romance worthwhile, so I need to add more romance beats to what I already have.
Two, it's not whimsical enough. On the surface with the synopsis, I know it's whimsical, but I haven't brought that into the plot yet. I can say this because I've been skipping around a lot to hit my word count, and it has a lot of blah and not awe right now. The biggest inspiration for this book is the scene from the first Tinker Bell movie where the fairies turn winter into spring. The wonder I felt watching that scene has not changed since I first saw it because looking at the little details and watching the magic of changing seasons is never dull. Just yesterday, I was raving in the car about how it finally feels like fall where I live because the leaves are finally changing colors, and it's cold outside. I need to bring that feeling into my writing with slow moments of looking out at nature. I forgot to do that in these first 5,000 words.
And three, I was trying to take on too much with some parts of the plot. The first book involves a quest for a crown, and I was making it bigger than it needed to be. I even had my followers on Instagram vote on how many crown parts they should look for, and they voted for 3-4 parts, and I was making 8. No, too much, and it was taking away from the romance plot and sucking the life out of me.
I don't know how I'm feeling all these emotions on Day 2 already, but here we are.
So, I cut writing short for the day after I hit my 1,667-word goal, and I'm focusing on beefing up the outline before midnight, this way I have something better to work with going forward.
Wish Me Luck!
Total Words Logged: 5,039
How do you feel about Your Work? : Not the best. I can already tell this is not the whimsical fantasy I want it to be, and I need to fix that so I stay interested.
Something Fun that Happened Today: I made some ta and watched Barbie as the Island Princess
A Song on My Mind: Nonsense by Sabrina Carpenter
Currently Reading: Red, White, and Royal Blue Fanfiction
Something you want to do Tomorrow: Add Chapters 3 and 4 of Book 1, which should have more character building by showing the character's goals, which I did not have before.
