S. W. Raine

Steampunk/Urban Fantasy Author

NaNoWriMo 2022

Note, this is not the final cover or title!

IT’S OFFICIAL… PROJECT ELEMENTALS 2 REWRITE HAS BEGUN!

I’m a little late with the news. I normally post a blog post on the first Sunday of each month, which would have been the 6th. And with five days into NaNoWriMo under my belt, I was already behind in my word count goal.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a challenge to write 50,000 words in thirty days, and this is my seventeenth year doing it. And while people are free to quit the challenge whenever they want for whatever reason… I can’t.

I’m an author. Writing books is my job. And right now, I’m still struggling with how long it takes me in the various editing stages. So, really, I currently only have time to write in November. That might change at some point down the line as I refine my skills, sure, but as of 2022, I still need NaNoWriMo as the start of my goal to get this book published in 2024.

So with being behind in writing, my blog and social media posts had to wait.

But now I’m (slightly) ahead! Woo!

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you’ll recognize Project Elementals (now known as The Elemental’s Guardian) as my NaNo 2011 project that I started editing for publication but shelved in favor of The Techno Mage.

It was just so complicated because I hadn’t finished writing it when I got writer’s block and opted to work on a different project halfway through NaNoWriMo. I wrote part two (which is technically Project Elementals 2 and 3) during NaNo 2013, then tried to connect the two during NaNo 2017. But there were still lots of problems, which is why I ended up shelving it.

My amazing coach had helped me brainstorm how to fill in the gaps for my NaNo 2021 rewrite of The Elemental’s Guardian, and then again for Project Elementals 2. So far, it’s been a pretty easy rewrite… until I got to the mercenaries.

I’ve learned a lot and have improved my writing since The Techno Mage and Rise of the Sky Pirate, and it was quite obvious that past me didn’t know what she was talking about. Hell, past me didn’t even do the research, and now current me has to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, with each new thing researched, I realize how unplausible everything I wrote around them was, and current me is left with making changes so drastic, it’s affecting some pretty big chunks of both books 2 and 3.

But it’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m stubborn like that.

The Elementals trilogy is best described as Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Sailor Moon, but for adults. I can’t wait to share more with you!

On another note, my son joined me for NaNoWriMo this year! Thanks to the Young Writers Program, he was able to make his own word count goal (well… I made it for him), and he’s blowing it out of the water!

He decided on a Pokemon fanfic. He dictates it to me (I mean, he’s only five years old), and I type it up for him, and he has already reached his goal of 300 words total. But don’t worry, he’s still going strong!

Raine

Leave comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *.