Writing in Rio, Preparing for Nanowrimo

Writing with an inspiring view always helps the muse.

I’ve been on a writing vacation. And, when I say ‘writing vacation’ what I really mean is that I haven’t been writing on my 3-Year-Work-In-Progress Manuscript for the past thirteen days (which is a huge break for me). Of course, I have been writing on my travel blog. I can’t resist - I’m a writer.

I do have to admit… I haven’t actually missed my massive manuscript (Bravyn) until yesterday. That’s when this gnawing, lonely, ‘life-is-pointless-without-writing’ feeling began to crawl up my throat and choke up my eyes.

No one is traipsing over the top of this!

Yes, there were moments when I thought about Bravyn. Like when I was out in the middle of Lago Argentina looking at the glaciers and thinking, “I’m going to have to rewrite that bit where Kerra traipses along the top of a glacier, because, there’s no way anyone is traipsing over one of THOSE!”

But, now, two days from returning home, I’m feeling fired up to get back into my writing schedule (at least two hours per day starting at 5:30am). Alex is planning to spend the day on the beach and I’ll spend some time writing while watching our little girl. Fortunately, we have a panoramic view of Copacabana beach so I’ll still have local flavor in my day. 

What am I writing? Well, I’m actually not going back to working on Bravyn until December 1st. I’m going to print a copy of the manuscript out and - along with a big fat red pen - read it in the November evenings. This is draft 5 and I want to read hardcopy before I start on Draft 6.

What I’m going to be working on is a new manuscript. I will be taking up the NaNoWriMo challenge and bust out the first draft of another, completely different, novel. I did Nanowrimo last year but I wrote a version of Bravyn from my male lead character’s point of view. This year, I’m going to write “Shifter Girl”. It’s based on a short story I wrote last year. I’m not sure about the entire novel, but today I’m going to scribble out a rough outline. I should be able to post more on it next week.

You can find me on the NaNoWriMo website as “Krakatoaink”. If you’re planning to write a 50,000 word novel in November, let’s be friends and encourage each other along the way!