Hey everyone, how are we doing?

Wait… Do you hear that?

What is it?

Hmm?

So yeah, I managed to win that NaNoWriMo thing again this year and it feels awesome! The thing that makes it the best for me is that while I manage a retail shop, I still somehow managed to sneak in 50k words in 22 days. That is no small feat!

I decided that I’d do a relaxing blog post for my word count today and actually go to bed before the turn of the day. But first, let me talk about my other NaNo win and how it differed to this year’s!

In 2014 I wrote by “pantsing” if you would, and all I had were a couple major plot points and a direction. This direction was great and the characters really took the story through to where I needed them to be and not only that but the whole process felt very free and natural.

This year, I planned out the story within the last two weeks of October. I had it narrowed all the way down to the scenes and the people in them. I think planning that much is great if you’re planning a large piece of work, otherwise, I felt as though the whole thing was a bit too confining and I ended up with 33 words over 50k. Don’t get me wrong, a win is a win, but I learned a thing or two about my writing and how I prefer it.

Now, ready for some insanity!

The mind of a writer is a funny place, being a writer is even stranger. “Here are my imaginary friends and their adventures… I do hope you like them.” What are we thinking? Well, for me I began thinking about a single story all stemming from one question:

Where did magic come from?

I wrote that outside of NaNoWriMo (although it started there as a NaNoFail) and it stars Jefferson and Gabriel, two magicians who are a part of a secret society who try and combat the rise of the forbidden arts.

At the end of that novel, I had intended for it to be a single story. Self-contained. Then, suddenly I had that spark of creativity and one story suddenly became a trilogy when a slight change in the ending drew out Jefferson and his Antagonist’s end. I became obsessed with a cycle and now the protagonist would have to do all he could to break that cycle. He would fail, which would end book two and mirror his mentor’s failures, but then set up a reunion in book three at which time they would fight the gods.

Delicious!

But then, because of this cycle… Gabriel (antagonist) became so interesting and his backstory was just pouring out that I had no choice but to write a prequel to a plotted out trilogy! That’s just nuts!

Oh no, wait! Don’t stop there!

I’d always had the idea Jefferson’s existence would be my version of The Hobbit, therefore there’d be another series straight after… you know, my Lord of the Rings. So I had the idea of a trilogy set in epic fantasy with three storylines going at once (all headed for a crash course in book three, as you do) that would demonstrate the evolution of magic in my world and even 2000 years later, the struggle for some magic to actually be approved by society. Oh, also the god of death has vanished, demons have broken free from hell and the angels are paralyzed as if there’s no god of death, there are no new angels.

Fantastic!

So in this 2000 year later trilogy, Jefferson and Gabriel are spoken of almost like we talk of Troy and King Arthur. Jefferson has downgraded himself from potential god of magic to an Odinesque wanderer. This sets him up as a Gandalf-like character but also he keeps the balance between the two sides of magic and of magic in the world.

But wait, what’s this?

True, not done, never done! Then I decided that with all the things I’d read this year and listened to in regards to writing, I wanted to implement them before I started. So I planned. Planned some more. Then I smashed out my 50k words in 3 weeks (and a day) but this novel ended up setting up the events of my sequel trilogy to Jefferson. So, it’s kind of a sequel-prequel as they also mention the first magicians and a wanderer gives the protagonist a wand to use in battle that tips the scales for good. I found that if I actually saved the antagonist and his partner in crime, they set up the events of the trilogy exceptionally well and tie everything together with a nice bow!

So that’s how one story became 8 (at least thus far) but every new idea I have, regardless of its type, goes into this world now. Each story or concept enriches the lore and weaves those threads tighter together!

I suppose my win this year wasn’t just the writing, that’s more the reward. The win was actually adding to my world building and hitting the planned 50K as I’d hoped to!

For you folks out there, what are you doing to get up there? Do you plan it or pants it! Anyway, I work in the AM and I’m rewarding myself with an early night tonight!

Good luck with the writing and feel free to ask me anything via email, comment or through my facebook or twitter feeds!