NaNoWriMo, Six Days In

I fear I gave the wrong impression last week. Seeing David Sedaris in person DID make me contemplate writing irreverent pieces about family, but I have been ramping up for NaNoWriMo for far too long with a fiction plan to simply give it up.

The short story collection is off in the hands of a few first readers. I don't expect to look at it again until after the first of the year.

For NaNoWriMo, I am re-tackling a story tentatively titled Lost Girl of Birch Fall. This will be the third forth full draft of this story (assuming I get it finished... which I will, I will!) The story line has undergone quite a significant transformation between drafts three and four, though the protagonist remains very much the person I have envisioned her to be from the start. This is the novel I have written as a mystery, but thanks to a workshop at the Kansas Authors Club convention in October, I have decided it might be better presented as suspense. In my mind, changing from mystery to suspense novel was going to "fix" all of the difficulties I was having with this story. However, 10,000 words in, it is still feeling very much like a mystery. An improved mystery, but still a mystery. We shall see. It's amazing how clear it can all seem in your head, but when the words are committed to paper, they don't always say what you think they will say.