NaNoWriMo Has Begun

It has. I haven't.

In fact, writing this blog post to introduce the project is just one more way in which I will procrastinate starting it. Why? Because I already started it twice before.

This year, I'm working on The Merchant's Daughter. To give the brief blurb that I use on the site:

Mahari would do anything for her family. Even sell herself to save her father’s life.

Vadin is desperate to clean up the mess his father left behind. Even if it means polluting his own legacy.

A contract is forged between a desperate merchant’s daughter and the king who doesn’t want her. She will use his harem as a place to hide. He will use her connections to forge a new alliance.

One year to complete three tasks and the merchant Ketan will have his daughter back. Untouched. A clause Mahari knows nothing about, but which Vadin is eager to see completed.

One year for her to learn about friendship and desire. One year for him to test his boundaries. A lot can happen in a year.

The first time I began TMD it was for NaNoWriMo in April 2019. I had a goal of 25k words and surpassed it to hit 27k before my passion for the project drifted. While I still enjoyed the idea of it, I never was immersed enough with it to continue on. At one point, I finally realized that I did not like the story as it was and chose to rewrite it.

I started the rewrite file and had most of the first chapter finished months ago, but did not carry on with it or the scenes that inspired it.

So if I lacked the passion for it before, why start it up again?

For 3 reasons.

I made a poll in my Vassel group and asked those in it which projects I should pursue for NaNoWriMo this year. It looked like this:

The results of this poll were 4 votes for TMD and 2 for DE/TR. I honored the voting system.

2. If I'm being honest, I have as little passion for the other projects as I do for TMD. What I do have in regards to this project versus the others is a clear idea of what I want to do with it. Something I've learned about myself as a writer is that, when I have a book with a dual narrative, one voice will always be consistently stronger than the other. It usually takes me several rewrites to get the other person to speak up and truly make themselves known. In the case of TMD, Vadin was the more vocal, and Mahari's storyline was filler at best. That has to change, and this is the time for me to change it.

3. I want to further explore the polygamy. There are a lot of other ways I could have put that–describing the 1999 film Anna & The King being a huge motivation for it, or discussing my early exposure to mutual love and respect from the Wheel of Time series–but it would all amount to the same thing. I want to write about a man already in love with other women falling in love with yet one more. And her not being limited to loving one person herself.

In all honesty, it's that last one that will get me every time. Which is why I will now post this and go finish that first chapter for the third time.

Good luck to every daring person who attempts National Novel Writing Month. And enjoy the show for those of you smart enough not to add the extra stress to your month.

Let NaNo Begin!