Yay, 2015. Let's get this rolling.

ALRIGHT WELL.

So, I bet the one person that reads this blog aside from me will want an official update on NaNoWriMo2014. Well, I did it. My official total was 50,235 words.

Sort of.

The story I attempted was only moderately planned out ahead of time, and was written strictly chronologically, in an allotted two hours per night, from 11 pm to approximately 2:30 am. As most ideas tend to do, it flourished, changed, and warped as I went, and I had a serious main character crisis. So I decided to make this story a duology, in that it will be the same plot, from two different perspectives, in two separate books. Similarly, I've decided to crisscross timelines with my other main series and it's planned spin off, as some events happen simultaneously and are as relevant as any other plot points. Confused? Yeah, imagine having 15+ separate, defined personalities inside your head at all times that occasionally break through into real life.

But anyway. The main body of the NaNo story (the chronological, planned, and slightly polished final word count,) was approximately 18,000 words. BUT, here's where the "winner!" part comes in. I learned, from other WriMos, that at the end, when it comes to tally the counts, they add in random but related non sequential scenes, outlines, and bits of dialogue or character bios. So, technically, it's kind of cheating. BUT. It's all directly involved with the main story, so I'll consider my first attempt at NaNoWriMo a success. A cheap, cheating success, BUT DAMMIT I WANTED A DISCOUNT ON SCRIVENER.

The struggle is real.

I love this project. It's two female main characters. One, a gender fuck/fluid but biologically assigned female, the other, a strong, independent and resourceful yet definitely feminine biological and identifying female. It's a challenge for me to not write a male main character, as society has conditioned even me to lean toward masculine protagonists and more defined male characters as selling points or engaging story driving characters. And dammit, that needs to change. I think writing one strictly female, more passive character, and one who is more androgynous simultaneously in the same arc will help me figure out what works and what doesn't, because dammit, it's hard to write from a perspective with which you don't necessarily easily identify. BUT. Women are people too, and I want to join the authors that are trying to facilitate the expansion of valid, interesting, marketable characters.

Kameron Hurley pretty much nails it. Also, her book is totes on my TBR list. ... Which is a million books long. Dammit. I should work on that...

BTW. READING THIS:

YOU SHOULD TOO.
Or Kail won't bring your mother out for a nice dinner the next time he booty calls her.

Review to come. :3

- RaRa out.