NaNo2.0 replacing the imploded NaNoWriMo revs me up to start novelling in a few hours when life is doing its best to halt my writing. I mean, given the zeitgeist, any creative endeavour feels like dragging dead legs against a furious gale flinging pottery shards and paper cuts at you. Add in the usual personal snafus (do you know what that stands for) and inevitable leavings, and I needed Chris Baty and the team of volunteers to resurrect National Novel Writing Month in the form of NaNo2.0.
Last year I used trackbear to track my word count. But with NaNo wordsprints back, this time on Bluesky — can we get a long Yayyyyy!!! — and the new word count milestone badges, I’m not sure if I’ll need to. Still, trackbear was a nice replacement to NaNoWriMo’s stats page; seeing my daily word counts add up in graphical form motivates me to keep writing, especially when fatigue hits us all midway.
NaNo2.0 also issued Experience Badges. I’m telling you all about my NaNo project this year: novel 3 of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy so that I can earn the Tell a Friend badge. I’m titling it for now The Soul’s Turning.
What’s It About, You Ask?
Set in the far far future, the story gets going after Satan is chained up and governments and elite thrown into the Lake of Fire, with the globe wrapped in 8℃ of warming, and city-states having replaced countries. My protagonist Charlotte Elisabeth embarks on her last assigned quest: find her true identity. Only then can she pass the Book of Life and avoid second death.
Oh, you ask, what is second death? The Soul’s Reckoning hints at it more. Soon, you can read it in only two more months at the end of December. Look for it in online stores!
Like the first time I joined NaNoWriMo, I’ll start writing at the end. Chapter 30.
As I walked this morning in the cold wet, fury at the lack of accessibility rose in me, and I adjusted The Soul’s Turning ending in my mind. I’ve already written the last lines in Scrivener (my favourite writing app). It’s been a few novels ago when the last lines landed in my mind long before I began writing. It’s a nice feeling when they do, like a safety seat for my novel. No matter how I start, the last lines are good!
