Once again, sanity has forsaken me as I look forward to National Novel Writing Month this November.
My goal for this year is finishing the novel I started last fall, Steampunk Apocalypse (title pending). I only got about 12,000 words in last year, and I've only written about 3,000 since then. Time to beef it up by another 50,000!
This will be my fifth year and (hopefully) my third victory. My first year (sophomore year in high school) I wrote Psychic, my first novel (2008). I loved writing it, but I hated (and still hate) the ending, so that'll have to be re-written at some point in time. Psychic was actually inspired by my Freshman-year Power Rangers phase, believe it or not. The main character, Bridge, was very much based off of the Bridge from Power Rangers SPD (and was the reason I never really looked to get it published--I don't really want to get in a copyright battle with Disney). It was so much fun to write, and I still have my notes and scribbles, as well as the self-published bound volume of the original draft! Psychic was about a police cadet with psychic powers who ends up being taken in by an academy of other psychics in Romania and helping them with their fight against the hostile supernatural.
My second novel (2009) was Continuity, the story of Agent Annabel Lee of the United States Secret Service, and the bodyguard of Madam President. While exasperated by her employer's childishness and overall disregard for rules and formality, Annabel still thought she had a pretty great job. The story begins with a day where a Nuclear bomb is detonated in Washington DC, and it's Annabel's job to get Madam President out of danger and then find a way to survive herself and find out what's happened. I really loved writing this one--this was inspired by my Secret Service phase and by two TV episodes: a History Channel special on what would happen if a 10-tonne nuclear device did detonate in DC and by an episode of my then-favorite TV show, "Surviving Disaster", about this same scenario. I never finished this one, I couldn't figure out where I wanted it to go. But it's about seventy percent done, so I'll finish it one way or another!
2010 was a mixture of bits and pieces of stories and novels that I wanted to finish but didn't. There were three bits to this one: Continuity, and two new fanfics--a Naruto one titled I Didn't Name You based off of the names of the Akatsuki members translated into Chinese (be me) and how those characters reflected on them (inspired by the song of the same name by the band called 'Ellie Come Home') and a VOCALOID one called Voicebox, which explored a sort of Maximum Ride look at VOCALOIDS, if they were real and had mechanical voice boxes implanted in them in labs. The prospect was something I just thought up one day and really got interested in.
Last year, 2011, was the first year for Steampunk Apocalypse--and this year it will be finished! A little bit about the actual story: it takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where the remains of the planet are ruled by "the Agency". Here's the official NaNoWriMo summary I wrote up yesterday (I'm too lazy to summarize all over again):
In the distant future, the post-apocalyptic remains of Earth are ruled
by a single organization referred to simply as "the Agency". Within the
Agency are 26 Agents (one for each letter of the Roman alphabet), humans
engineered to carry out the tasks and will of the Agency. Though
they're genetically engineered, the Agents consider themselves to be
perfectly human--but when the Agency announces a series of upgrades in
the near future, that one belief is compromised. With these upgrades,
they will become faster, smarter, stronger, quicker to heal--and more
ruthless and unquestioning. Is it worth it to live without your
humanity or is it better to die as yourself? These two are the only
options the Agents have.
So that's that for my NaNo history! Next month will no doubt be filled with chocolate, Dr. Pepper, all-nighters and lots and lots of ibuprofen. To those who are also participating: good luck, and may all your plot holes be filled with pudding.
