Wednesday, November 11, 2015

NaNoWriMo 2015 and a Gender Swap.

So we're already most of the way into November. I decided at like 5am on the 1st of November hey, wouldn't it be a good idea to do Nanowrimo? Yeah! I love coffee!! Woo-hoo!!

Five in the morning really is a weird time of the day for me.

Anyway, i set up my own parameters for it. because i don't want to write something new. I don't have the time for that. And i have too much unfinished to just blithely run off and fall in love with some young new stranger. Strangers don't interest me anymore.

So i'm working on the Guide. and here's how my word count works.

if i write something new: full word count
if i transcribe something out of a notebook: 3/4 word count (because when it comes down to it, i'm really rewriting most of it anyway. notebook stuff is just outline suggestion-y, especially some of the older things that are dodgy in their usefulness due to developments since their scrawling.
if i search through old typed documents to find stuff to move into new documents: 1/4 word count.

I'm currently at 4,000 words.

which is good. ish. i guess. considering we've all been sick and i still need to work and actually hang out with my children.

Also, in a strange twist, i believe the entire path of the 'verse following the Guide - from Prophet on - has changed course when i decided to gender swap my main character. Daniel as Dani, creating a 2:2 male female ratio, rather than a 3:1.

Dani would still be searching for a sister. I wouldn't want to swap Jo in response. In fact, i don't think i want to swap any other characters. I like a female Prophet. I like Daniel's personality transposed into a girl. Don't change anything but pronouns and the whole arc of stories suddenly feels more female-centric and the role being carried out by this character, i feel, is an entirely new and exciting spin.

I think i've committed to it.

My only worry, actually, is the way it changes the relationship with Spencer, but that's so far down the road, and even his story isn't complete...