Screaming About My WIP To Motivate Myself For NaNo! (With Actual Snippets)

my monthly wrap-up did not do my wip justice so here I am, talking about it again!

I know, I KNOW, I won’t shut up about it, but? frankly? this is my child, give it love. I demand you give it love, right now.

Okay so I don’t know why I’ve half-signed myself up to do NaNo (as in I’m doing it but not legitimately — a practice-run-thing, if you will) and I have no idea how to get to 50K but! doing this so far has helped me come up with a lot of new ideas to include which is GREAT because before it was a CARCASS of a story.

So what I’ve done is: take the ‘Rising Author Tag’ Questions that I did ages back, and take some from a few blogs that also did the tag (because I’m a thief), a few of my own questions (whoaaaaa look at me being creative), and compile this monstrosity of a post. Enjoy!

where is it set?

basic! question but:

• it’s set in this super funky town, with this really freaky lake that’s pretty much on the outskirts of the town, surrounded by this fishy wood, that likes to chomp on souls of the dead.
• it’s super normal ok.
• The town, Blackwater, is basically a really strange town. by the lake, and thus, the lake, is the trailer park, where one of the characters lives (more on that later) and on the other end there are the really rich houses, and in between, is… you guessed it, middle-class areas.
• this is important because!! in the end!! no one is safe from the soul-munching lake and ha.
• (this makes more sense when you find out what the rich did in the 19th C in Blackwater)
• (they basically were behind the deaths of loads of people)
• (not fun)
• (and then they covered it all up)
• (but the lake tethered their souls here)
• (somehow)

talk about your characters/how do you name your characters?

My babies:

• Aldred Buckley III, “Buck”: “Aldred” is from the Old English Ealdraed, meaning old counsel and could mean a “wise man” and Aldred is pretty much a brainiac. It’s English too, and he is half English/half American. THEY have short dreadlocks and a book wedged under their arm practically at all times. They are also genderfluid because I REALLY think that rep is missing in YA. They have a character arc that honestly I haven’t all figured out yet, but I’ve written a lot of scenes already about them figuring shit out and I hope that I’ve done it justice. he’s “Rich”
• Lars Driscoll: Irish surname, which links into the plot A LOT as it is based on the Irish migration loosely to the U.S among the time of the gold rush. And is based on the name “Larz” which means “laurel” and “laurel” is a green shrub thing and there’s a lot of green mist/trees in the book so!! it made a lot of sense! That, and it sounds cool (to me). He’s a boxer, is tall, & is Gay. He’s got a dead mother & a dad in the army, a baby brother (7/8 y/o) and they both live in more or less the centre of town with their Au Pair or Aunt, I haven’t decided. He drives his dad’s BMW, because why not.
• <BIG>Joshua Williams: ‘Williams’ is from an Old French given name with Germanic stuff in there too: will = desire, will and helm = helmet, protection <– and both of those basically sum up Joshua? that boy needs to be protected at all costs. And I picked Joshua because?* it sounds pretty. He’s… honestly bless. He is Pan & he lives in the trailer park with his dad, in an abusive household (not b/c of his sexuality). He has anxiety & Selective Mutism and I’m doing a lot of research to make sure that I rep Selective Mutism correctly.
• Grant Mac Ghabhann: he is a ghosty boy! he’s a nice one though and just helps out the boys and befriends them & looks out for them & is a smol. he’s around the same age, 19 (they’re seniors in high school), and is just generally a sweetheart. He was one of those killed in the massacre when he was meant to be safe.

*Lars & Joshua’s ship name = josars or larhua or Drislliam or Willcoll.

which of your characters do you feel the most guilty about?

Honestly? they’re all gonna hurt a lot.

if I HAD TO NARROW IT DOWN? Lars. He’s gonna go through so much emotional pain, I almost feel bad.

but… then there’s Joshua. . .

what’s its status? (ie. plotting, writing, editing, etc.)

All three??

I’m still figuring out the plot because I don’t want to limit myself! I really want to explore the options with where this WIP can go plot/message-wise.

I’m kind of editing things that I feel NEED to be edited straight away, but I’m really focussing on GETTING IT ALL DOWN.

do you outline, or make the story up as you go?

A bit of both?

what I did was just start writing. I didn’t want to outline outline outline until I lost motivation and then give up. So, I sat down and wrote the first 10k of it.

— then, as more ideas would come to me, I would plot them in order, maybe even go back and add points/ideas to weave into the already written text, and then expend them into written word as I wished to.

but now, as I’m going back, I’ve developed the WIP further by adding in new scenes, developing old ones, and changing it when the writing was absolute shit.

do you let anyone read your writing? if so, who?

I do! I pretty much let anyone I know on the internet read it if they want, (go here if you want that to be you!) because I love getting feedback on what they think I could develop further, especially as I’m dealing with a LOT of representation in this WIP.

I’m CONSIDERING letting someone from my friendship group read it, as she also writes and we’ve screamed about our WIPs so much together recently and it’s great to have an irl writing friend!

what’s something you’ve written that you feel proud of?

Is it bad if I say this WIP? It’s 1000% trash quality at the moment, but I’m proud over how it’s turning out and just the fact that I’M STILL WRITING IT, even though I started back in August and I’ve had the idea in my head even longer!

I REALLY LIKE MAKING MY CHARACTERS SNARKY, which I’m proud of!!

sgnksgn this is my child.

here’s a (teeny) snippet of my snarky son Lars:

Show your WIP’s aesthetic in images or words (or both)

You’re in luck, I’ve JUST started making a Pinterest board for this!

Share a tiny (or large) snippet/excerpt of your writing!

ehhhhhhhhkk.

OK, here’s part of the prologue:

Please, judge me harshly.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WIPS! Are you going NaNo? Have you before? Do you write just for fun? What are you working on at the moment? How do you write, outline or just jump right(write, get it?? I’m so funny) in? Let me know, let us scream about writing together!