November, for the writing world, is NaNoWriMo time: National Novel Writing Month. In the thirty days of November, one is to write 50,000 words of a new novel. The goal is to get people in the habit of writing everyday. Now, most novels are longer than this, but the first 50,000 is a good start. Guest of Honor was going to be my NaNoWriMo in February story—November, for me, seems to be a busy month. Besides, I like to write everyday, regardless that it’s November or any of the other eleven months. Needless to say, it took me less than a week to write and is nowhere near the 50,000 word mark. It is a novelette, as it is roughly 10,000 words.
If you are a follower of my blog Views From The Outhouse, you know I am not an outliner—I am what is called a discovery writer. What I do ahead of time may be construed as outlining, for I roughly sketch out a few points in the story and maybe a few visuals (like the beheading in the kitchen), and that’s about it. I call it brainstorming, a low-level version of outlining. The majority of the story, from her brother Sandy to the sudden reveal at the end about the reason behind her trip to the Twin Cities, was made up on the fly.
I think it turned out rather well. Please let me know what you think. My e-mail is: marksrpeterson@gmail.com