NaNoWriMo Has Me BLURred

There's still more to LittleDude's story, but updates may be even fewer and further between this month.  It's November, and that means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is upon us again.  That's the time I completely lose my sanity and try to write a 50,000 word novel (or 50,000 words of a novel) in thirty days, from November 1-30.  Which of course means all my spare time (what little I have) will go to writing.

This will be my fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and once again, I'm doing something a little different.  Last year's NaNoWriMo project (a win!) was SAVING WONDERLAND, the story of Dinah, who was transported through a faerie portal into Wonderland, a land that's a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and all the fairy tales we grew up with jumbled together.  Dinah is thought to be the savior of Wonderland, the one chosen by the Wise Ones to wrench the land back from the House of Green and restore her to all her former glory.  The story's not done yet, but it's been great fun writing.

The year before that was another win with CHESTER AND RUBE, the tale of a small white duck and a giant purple dinosaur and their adventures in Feckerson Forest as they embark on a quest to save their beloved homeland from the evil Centipig and his pigapede minions.  I'm in the process of attempting to break this story down into a series of children's books.

My first year with NaNoWriMo was a monumental failure with SHIFTING RHYTHMS, a contemporary romance.  I still want to write that story, but I've yet to find myself in the correct frame of mind.

This year's project is going under the working title of BLUR, and here's the novel blurb from my NaNoWriMo profile:

BLUR (working title)

When daydreams merge with reality

Her husband left her for a younger woman.  Her teenaged daughter is heading off to college.  Her job pays the bills, but is mundane.  She has no romantic prospects.  Few friends.  In short, she's fallen face-first into a deep, unending rut.

Until Grace Walters learns the power of a daydream.

She dreams while working at the power company.  She dreams while cooking dinner.  She dreams while vacuuming her quiet, empty house.  And in those dreams, her life is interesting.  She has friends.  Lovers.  Adventures.

Summer comes, and her daughter's off on a pre-college adventure.  When her boss tells her she must either take all her saved vacation time or lose it, she takes the summer off work to immerse herself even further in her newfound love.  Her daydreams. 

And that's when her daydreams take over, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.

So far, I'm having fun with this, although writing Grace's fantasies has become much more fun than writing her reality. I still don't know how this one will end, though. Will it turn out that she's not just daydreaming, but traveling inter-dimensionally and actually living these dreams? Or is it a much sadder ending, and the daydreams have taken her sanity, leaving her staring blankly from a window in a mental facility? I guess I'll find out soon!

In the meantime, I will resume LittleDude's story when I have time.