I had a chance to interview Josh after his success with NaNo. He is set to be a writer as he waits to become a teacher once more. NaNo is no easy feat and I certainly wish him luck in being a writer. Check out the interview of who he is, what he writes about, and lessons learned this year.
On November 16th, 2014, I officially over 50,000 words. My story, which will be turned into five books, was Daygar Legacy #1 – Templar Five. The story is about Vampires in the 14th century spreading a disease that is killing humans at an alarming rate and five knights of the former Templar Knights attempt to make a deal with the devil to try to win the war.
This was a challenging time. Mostly because of my disability, I couldn’t do as much as I wanted. I aimed to finish by the 14th like I did last year. I came close, but I was shy 2 days. I think that is still very impressive. Also, given that I am a science fiction writer and I am doing Historical Fiction, Fantasy, and Paranormal, it was hard at times for me to write. Completely out of my comfort zone. As I wrote, I had to do additional research on the time period to get key facts correct.
I want to thank the creators of Write Monkey, as with their software, I was able to write my story despite my sensitivity to light. I dedicate my success this year to all those with disabilities, whether with Post-Concussion Syndrome, those with Traumatic Brain Injuries, or other disabilities that prevents someone from living they life they want. Writing was very hard for me, and the only way I did it was by forcing myself to do it, even if my brain wanted to give up. My reward is the next two weeks off.
With Thanksgiving coming up, and a few other special projects I am currently engaged in, I am taking a break from this blog. I will come back in December, hopefully to finish up my rivers on the worldbuilding tutorial. However, I will be limited in December. I plan to come back in full force in January.
In preparation for NaNo, I need to get back into a writer mindset. In the past I just read Stephen King’s “On Writing” and I was set. Due to my disability, I have to do a lot more work to do it. I actually did this yesterday, but ran out of time to write it up.
Stranger Than Fiction is one of my five favorite films of all time. It is a great movie that really explores writing, not a practical sense, but a mechanical one. It demonstrates a lot of the processes that we writers deal with, and some of the moral questions as well.
November 1st is soon upon us, and it is time for NaNoWriMo. Already been a year… what a year it has been. I published one book, which has great reviews. I have met a great number of people who have given me fantastic support. I rubbed elbow with authors, and I now have a voice within the community. A small one, but it is there.
It was last years NaNo that convinced me to become an author once more. I didn’t just complete it, I annihilated it. 50,000 words in 14 days. Will I do it again? I don’t know. I know I’ll get 50,000 words. Maybe in 40 days, maybe in 10 days.