Preparing for July Camp NaNoWriMo
Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. For those of you who don’t know, Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is happening, starting July 1st. And I plan to participate in it! Today, I’m going to be talking a little more in depth about my current WIP and what I’ll be working on next month.
What my novel is about
The title would probably be a good thing to start with. Right, right. The title of my novel is Of Moonflowers and Myths. I’ll be referring to it as OMaM because it’s easier that way. I’m really bad at explaining things, and if I tried to explain what my book is about, I’d probably ramble on and on and not get to the point, so here’s a synopsis I wrote a little while ago:
The Dark Land is a forbidden island, surrounded by thunder clouds and strange magic. It’s been that way for the last 150 years and terrifying stories about the island keep adventurers away. No one exactly knows what happened. The only knowledge of the island are rumors about dark magic and a fateful decision made all those years ago. However, this streak for the isolated island is about to end.
Out on another island, Alna, Aria’s mother is stricken with the “Dimming”, a deadly disease that weakens her magic. The one-known cure involves kantar, a small white flower rumored to grow only on the Dark Land. Aria desperately wants to help her mom and soon connects with Castor, a boy whose own mom has the same illness. She’s now in a coma and no one knows if she’ll wake up.
As they learn more about kantar, Castor makes the crazy decision to go to the Dark Land and retrieve the plant. Even though it seems terrifying and impossible, Aria isn’t about to let Castor go alone. Aria’s best friend, Jasmine, is a botany enthusiast. Aria knows she would be invaluable on the quest. Initially Jasmine is reluctant to make the journey, but decides she can’t pass up the opportunity to explore the plants on the forbidden island.
With their parents’ lives on the line, the teenagers secretly make the dangerous journey to the Dark Land, in the hope of saving what will be lost if they’re too late.
So, yeah. That’s the main overall summary. I also need your help. The cure, kantar, translates to ‘moonflower’ in the ancient language. I recently discovered and read the synopsis for Brigid Kemmerer’s soon to be published novel Defy the Night. While the overall plots of the two stories are very different, the cure aspects for the diseases are quite similar (the name and also some other aspects that are included in my story). While my story wouldn’t be published for a very long time (if I even did that), I feel like I need to change something about mine so that it doesn’t seem as though it’s slightly plagiarized. I’ve been contemplating changing the name of my cure, plus some of its properties so it fits under the new name, so it’s not so similar to Kemmerer’s. What do you think I should do? Is it different enough? Am I just over exaggerating this situation? Please, tell me in the comments; I need someone else’s opinion.
My goals for the month
This is going to be the third draft of OMaM. For this draft, I really want to work on characterization, relationships between characters, and worldbuilding. I’ve made character profiles, but I didn’t fill it all out. I did the major stuff, like appearance and personality, but the smaller stuff that really makes them realistic people hasn’t been completed yet. I think that writing the story really helps develop the characters as well, so I’m planning to work on those parts as I write.
Also, making sure the characters are distinctly their own. I’m doing a multiple perspective novel, with the three POVs being Aria, Jasmine, and Castor, so I really want it to be obvious who’s narrating.
As for word count, since I’m not on the adult site, I can set my word count for whatever I want. I’m so grateful for that, I would not be able to write 50k words for this. My second draft was around 35,000 words. For this one, it’s probably going to turn out to be more, since I’m planing to work on relationships and worldbuilding, but I’m shooting for roughly around the same.
I’m really looking forward to doing camp this month. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done because I’m pretty preoccupied with some other things (geometry, I’m looking at you), but I hope to get as much done as I can.
I know some of you were interested in seeing some more writing-related content, so I plan to do some form of those posts in the near future. I’m thinking about doing a ‘meet my MCs’ post and if that goes well, I might do a character Q&A! I think it would be a lot of fun to do and it will also help me develop my characters a little more. So, yeah I’m really excited about all of this!
Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you done NaNo in the past? Are you working on any writing projects right now?
Chat with me in the comments below!
18 Comments
Brooke W.
Ohhh your story sounds great! I’ll also be participating in Camp NaNo! Happy writing!
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you! That’s great, happy writing!
Vanya
Ahhh! I really loved the synopsis. It seems intersting. Even I am preparing for nanowrimo. All hte best!
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you so much! Best of luck for you as well!
jan @ thedoodlecrafter
The synopsis sounds super interesting, good luck on your wip!!
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you so much!
Mikael Blaisdell
There’s phrase: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that seems to apply to your use of the other author’s name for the disease, etc. I’ve done similar in my writing, and then went back later to change names and alter details so as to avoid any sense of copying. Unless the name and the details are truly core to the book, I wouldn’t worry about it at this point.
On the issue of a precis of what the book is about, what is the main challenge that the character faces? What does a daughter owe to her mother? Aria is risking death on the Dark Land in the hopes of finding a cure for her mother’s illness. Does she even think about that aspect, the risk to her own life, or does the question never even come up for her? How about the risk to the friends? What does a friend owe to a friend? Castor’s mother is in a coma — is Aria’s in the same state? If not, can her mother knowingly permit her daughter to run such risks? Does she know what Aria is planning? (Wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t; it would not be the first time that a teen set off in secret to do something very dangerous!)
How are the stories about the island told? 150 years are about 3-5 generations of people, so we’re some distance out from the original people who encountered the problem. Have others in the interim tried to go there and encountered trouble? What can Aria learn from the tales so as to prepare for her quest?
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Yes, that’s true. Thank you.
Her mother does not know about Aria and her friends decision to go to the Dark Land. They’ve kept it a secret and have a plan to get there. You raised a lot of good questions, I’m going to have to think of those.
Yes, so far, no one’s been there since the island closed itself off. And, if someone has, people don’t really know what happened. No one really knows what happened.
Maith M
Your novel sounds amazing! All the best Lotus! <3
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Sorry for such a late reply. Thank you so much!
Ritz @ Living, Loving and Reading
Ooh your story sounds so interesting! great post!
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Ignore how late this response is, but thank you!
Birdie @ Birdie's booktopia
Ahh good luck with your novel!! It sounds really intriguing! You can do it!! <3
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you so much!
magicalmaeve
Okay, oh my god this sounds so cool. And the title!! Damn.
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Ahh, thank you so much!
Bertie | LuminosityLibrary
Ooh good luck! Your novel sounds great! NaNo has always intimidated me 😂
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you! Yeah, NaNo can be a little intimidating.