It never fails. No matter how much I try to prepare for my NaNo novel, I always find myself making up a ton of stuff at the last minute. I always forget something. Yesterday was no exception.
Now, part of the problem is that I’m a pantser for life. If I start outlining my novel, it loses all of its magic and mystery, causing me to lose all interest in writing it. So it’s not like I’m surprised by my need to make stuff up as I go. But I like to at least start with an opening scene in mind, and maybe a few followup scenes to serve as guideposts on this crazy journey.
And you’d think that would have been simple, given that the introduction to this novel is based on a short story I wrote ages ago. The uncle of the main character dies, making him the last male heir in the family, and all of the ancient responsibilities fall to him– and also the ownership of the family familiar. The catch is that after his father’s death, his mother swore to hide the existence of magic from her children. But none of the main character’s cousins are old enough and/or male enough, so… the main character will have to learn about magic whether she likes it or not. Shenanigans ensue.
Did you notice the problem with the above opening summary? If you noticed that I kept referring to all of my characters by using unwieldy noun phrases and relationship titles instead of names, you figured out the problem I didn’t realize I had until… ohh, 11:30 pm on October 31st.
It’s all good now, though. Most of the important characters have names, and… despite some bad news on the extended family front, I should be ready to rock and roll!
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