MORE NANO!

As you are reading this, I am on choir tour! HUZZAH! (I'm actually writing this on Wednesday, because this is when I have time to blog and go to the gym and do laundry and not do my homework and stuff like that).

For today's topic, I'm talking about National Novel Writing Month AGAIN! I know that my novel can't start for another two weeks. If you have been here since last NaNoWriMo season, however, you know that I have to do this NOW. (If you have not been here since the last NaNoWriMo season, let me tell you: I need to start plotting early, because I've been really bad at getting word counts otherwise).
Right now, I have realized that I have a plot mostly in place. I still need to figure out my ending, but I guess that will depend on how I build up to it. If nothing else, I can write an ending for the word count, and then write a new ending if the editing sends the story in another direction. I really do hope the editing does not send the ending in another direction, but I don't know what the ending will be in the first place, so that's irrelevant. But it's not the time to think of endings. I need to think of beginnings, middles, characters, and worlds. For example, I finally figured out what Eva and Galen have to build (if I have not mentioned it before, building this thing is kind of the major goal in the novel, so it's kind of important).
The object in question is called a unicursal hexagram. Basically, it's a six-pointed star that can be drawn in one motion. You can find a good image of what I'm talking about here. It's a really cool magical symbol; part of its importance is that it can be drawn without picking the pen up from the page and that the line crosses over itself in the center. The object that Eva and Galen have to build will be a three-dimensional version of this super-complicated star. I figure that it's difficult enough to require patience and interesting enough to figure into some kind of symbolism. If nothing else, the object can be the item that is requested by the fairy that winds up changing Galen into the dragon in the first place, since there is magical symbolism tied up with it.


I may need to set more goals for NaNoWriMo this year. By "more goals," I don't necessarily mean "write MORE WORDS THAN EVER BEFORE." What I mean is that I should set different kinds of goals. For example, I should try to have my ending be as close to the 50,000 word mark as I can - or, at least, hit my ending in November. I also hereby resolve to have at least one really good pun and to have at least two characters that are not romantically interested in each other (if they're in the same family, it doesn't count as 'not being romantically interested in that person.' Incest is not condoned in this world). If I do that, then I guess I will feel more accomplished about it. Or something. At any rate, I think this year is going to be a good year to WIN NANOWRIMO! HUZZAH!