National Novel Writing Month

The NanoWrimo website and community shut down earlier this year after more than 20 years of supporting writers. They closed for a plethora of reasons, including both monetary and other more personal concerns. But its closer has left quite a whole in the writing community.

I have been using NanoWrimo since 2011. It functioned as a word and project tracker, as well as a community of fellow writers, editors, and publishers. It had so many connections and uses, and it will be sorely missed.

Many of the supporters have taken to other forums and sites, including Rouge Writers, but they are not the same. They support polished new word trackers too, like this one, but right now with a 4 month old, it is challenging to start in a new community.

My Goal

Instead I have created my own word tracker with Excel and challenged myself to a slightly different goal to that of Nano’s 50k words in 30 days.

I am writing 50k in 50 days
because 1k per day
sounds far more reasonable.

I started last weekend and am successfully 20% of the way to my goal. I am enjoying using a device of my own making, even if it is not fancy or anything. After losing all my projects and files during NanoWrimo’s shutdown, it’s more comfortable to have my own place for them.

My Project

A Peter Pan retelling. This story begins 100 years after Blackbeard’s death with the rising of the Deep Faith, about a hundred years earlier than the original version. Peter and James are siblings, who run away from home, escaping on a ship.

Their bad luck follows them, and Peter is killed by pirates. In his desperation to save his little brother, James performs a dark ritual.

Peter returns to life, but it is no longer his spirit in his body. It belongs to the god Pan, the mischief maker, and so a long tragic tale commences.

Tentatively, the project is planned as a series of novellas in a similar format as Murderbot or The Singing Hills Cycle. The shorter plots and pacing are already a bit easier to keep going in comparison to a full length novel, and I am excited to see where the project leads.

…

If you are continuing your own writing journey without NanoWrimo, I wish you luck. I will have more to share soon.