Creating a world at Camp NaNoWriMo

It's official, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). That means 50,000 words in 31 days. I was struggling to get into a new novel after finishing the last one but NaNoWriMo is always a good motivator for me, something about deadlines, charts and peer pressure that kicks me into gear.

The story I'm working on is based on a novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2013 but I'm making some tweaks and changes. Firstly the original writing is pretty awful, although with first draft you do expect that, with this it's more a sign of how much my writing has changed, I would say improved.

I'm switching from first to third person - I prefer it as a style to write though most of the books I enjoy reading are in first person.

I find that when I write in first person it's harder to separate out from the narrator, so this gives me more perspective. Now that I've learnt about psychic distance  I've found you can create the closeness of first person in third person and I really like that. I'm not saying I won't ever do a first person piece, just not at the moment.

The story crosses from fantasy to reality and back but I was struggling with building the fantasy world. It felt too boring and flat, also too familiar to other fantasy books who have already claimed those places and settings (ahem, Game of Thrones).

I wanted a new setting and inspiration struck this morning. I'm so excited about the idea and its potential. It means the idea has got much bigger which is both exciting and a little daunting.

​It shifts everything I had planned to write but there's so much more I can do. I can't wait.