NaNoWriMo, Crown Colonies and me

I apologize for not getting the third in my intended blog posts about new media and career planning done yet. It’s gotten a bit longer than I expected, so I might have to split it into two or more posts. I’ve got some notes out to friends to help me with costing out a couple aspects of things, so the research may delay me a bit. Since I’ll be going to the World Fantasy Convention this weekend in San Jose, I’m sure I’ll pick up some more perspectives, which I shall be glad to bring to the analysis. I beg your indulgence in this regard.

Because I’m on a novel deadline, and because I’ve given three separate talks on how to prep for and succeed at NaNoWriMo, I’ve decided I’ll blog here about my process and progress through the month of November. I won’t be doing NaNoWriMo per se, since I’ve already started the book; but I will be grinding out a lot of words during that month. I want to let folks know I’m practicing what I’ve preached to them.

The book I’m working on is At The Queen’s Command, which is the first of the Crown Colonies novels. As with any new series, it’s been a slow slog at the start, but the story is picking up speed, which is very hopeful. Today I managed to add 5100 words to the mix and I’m pretty pleased with them. As per my instructions to my students, I’ve definitely seen things I need to retrofit, so I’ve made notes and I will fix them in the next pass. It’s mostly minor stuff, but it’s the kind of content that when braided back into the story will make it all very tight.

One thing I’m doing differently is that I’ve chosen to cast the book with actors. This isn’t an attempt to prep it for sale to Hollywood, though that would be cool. It just works out that this time, unlike with most other books, I’ve had actors running around in my head in the various roles for years. I decided to stop fighting it and just going with the whole thing. I went out on the net, found pictures of the appropriate actors, tossed them on a page and printed it out.

Another thing I’m having fun with is inventing a language. As linguists go I’m an amateur at best, so I’m pulling this together in a far more basic and simplified version than any real language. Since I’m not going to be having conversations in it, I’m mostly just tossing out proper names and nouns. The important thing is to have them all sound like they logically fit together (instead of the usual fantasy random-word-generator procedure that creates words no human tongue can pronounce). This involves settling on root words that I can compound out, or deciding that female names will end in consonants and male names will end in vowels.

Lastly, and something which is very cool, the story is at the point where it’s kicking off ideas for short stories and novellas. I’m jotting them down in the back of my notebook as they occur to me, so I can tackle them between books. My intention is to be able to offer them as a taste of the world and supplemental material for folks who are thinking about reading the books, or who have already read them and are waiting for the next volume. I’m very excited about that prospect, both because the stories will be a blast to write, and for what being able to do such tales portends for the future of publishing.