NaNoWriMo: My novel this year, day 1

Hello readers!

That might come as a surprise to most of you, but this article is not about politics or science or sociology.

This article is to tell you about my NaNoWriMo novel of this year.

NaNo in short is about writing a novel of 50'000 words in the month of November (or 1'666 words a day). I always use it as a challenge. This year's challenge for me is to write it in English.

I have never written a story longer than a few pages not in German, so I have no idea how that will work out. I certainly have written 50000 words this year in English in my articles, but a novel? In one month? I have no idea if that will work.

But that is what NaNo is for!

To make things worse I have started with even less things I know about the story than ever before. I basically only know the place (a Japanese shrine) and that I want it to be light novel-ish. (If you don't know what that means, no problem.)

Of course the shrine in my story is a bit bigger lol.

The story so far

There are people who cannot write a story without meticulous pre-planning, while others just sit down and start. I am more or less of the second persuation.

What always happens is that I find out a lot about my characters, and their relation to each other, while writing. I always think that revelation-like thing is the same as with ideas. You ponder a solution for days or weeks, nothing works, and then you find the solution in your dream.

After 500 words I already found out a big - or parhaps THE big thing - about the female lead that connects her to the protagonist. And to the shrine. And it seems to everything else that will happen. Just look at this letter:

My beloved Aimi,

when I die you will get this letter together with my last will.

I know that nothing that I can write can heal your sorrow, or mine. But there is something you need to know, something I often tried but never could muster the courage to tell you.

I always told you that you were an “accident” child. That I didn’t know your father. But that is not true.
I know who he is. I know where he lives. I have always loved him.

However there are things, things I cannot tell you even in this letter, that I can never forgive him. That does not mean that he did something bad or that he is a bad person, no. It is more… the opposite.
I had to leave him, for his own sake, because he was too good a person.

But there is something you need to know. Something about you that cannot be told in this letter. Not in the situation you are in.

When I am dead, search for your father. I hope he is still alive then. I fear he will not. But even if he is dead, you will find what you need to know at his shrine.

I might have done some grave errors, but whatever might happen let me assure you that I always loved you from the deepness of my heart, more than anything else. I was happy to have you and see you grow up.

You will find the name and address of your father on the backside of this letter, together with the “key” to what you need to know. You HAVE to find out about it.

Love, mother.

That sounds ominouos, doesn't it?

I just typed it. It is all I have written today because I had a headache the whole day. Now I want to watch somethign in TV so it may be all for today. Means more to write tomorrow, the NaNo word count does not forgive lol!

Total words atm: 2629

In case you have never heard of NaNoWriMo before, and think about joining (you can still) but are worried what will happen to you, here is the answer: (NaNo will make a scribe out of you!](

)