I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, and seeing as I’m currently procrastinating, I figured this was a good time to give y’all a little update.
I’m going to be taking a little break from The Girls of Fall during the month of November, also affectionately known as National Novel Writing Month. The goal of NaNo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. While this is a little short for a novel these days it’s the perfect size for a rough draft. I wrote a big chunk of Stones and Finger Bones in a NaNo years ago, so I feel like the frantic energy of the month will be good for me.
What am I working on, you ask? It’s going to be a science fiction retelling of Beauty and the Beast, tentatively titled As the Sun Will Rise. Space! Aliens! Huzzah!
I’ve always wanted to write a B&B retelling, but wasn’t sure what new ideas I was going to bring to the classic fairy tale. Then I wrote a sci-fi short story for one of my MFA workshops, fell in love with that idea and decided I wanted to expand it into a novel, and then had a brilliant epiphany to merge the two concepts. I guess we will see how brilliant it really is once I get to writing! I’m really excited about this idea, which should help sustain my momentum through November.
I’ve gotten off to a slow start, though. It’s already day 5 and I think we’re supposed to have a little over 8,000 words by now, while I’m currently sitting at only 2,521. Still, that’s 2,521 words I didn’t have on this project 5 days ago, so I’m not going to get discouraged! I plan to work some more tonight, since we get to gain an hour, and I’m going to keep truckin’ even if I never manage to catch up.
P.S. Don’t judge my cover! I made it myself and I’m most definitely not a designer. I know the rose is cliché but it was the only image I found that I was able to tweak to my satisfaction. 🙂
jessicaminyard.com 