NaNoWriMo: My 2018 Project

This year is my fourth consecutive year that I’ll be taking part in NaNoWriMo. Every November, I and millions of others challenge ourselves with writing 50k words. This is still a challenging number for me, so I hope I can make it. Last year was the first year that I actually won. I’m going to do my best to make it happen. If you want to follow my progress, add me as a buddy on the official NaNoWriMo site.

Like every year I have a main project and a side project. Since my collection of short stories is in the next phase, I won’t pick that as my side project. I’m actually doing Blogmas in December (more on that below). My main project is an old one, but it can use another 50.000 words, A Devil’s Deal.

A Devil’s Deal

A Devil’s Deal is my current WIP, one that I started some years ago and I worked on it during NaNo last year. It’s still sitting at 27k so adding another 50k words will be enough for a novel. I’ve already written most of the key scenes, the ending and epilogue, so I know where the story is going. I used this post on creating a subway map to plot my outline to gain a better overview of what’s what. I still want to have a closer look at the character development before I start writing the rest of the story.

It’s the first book in a series and I already have major plot lines ready for the next two books. A few scenes have been written already since they popped up in my head and I didn’t want to lose them. As soon as the first draft is ready, I’ll start working on those. Expect to see more of it next year.

Summary

16-year old Eleonora is mugged the last evening before school starts again, only to find that the boy who took her bag is in her class. Her friends fawn over his good-looking brother, but he only seems to have eyes for Eleonora. What will she do when both of them are determined to be in her life?

Here is the unedited prologue that I wrote years ago

Blogmas

There are a ton of blogging events to take part in. I did Blaugust earlier this year on my other blog and now I want to do Blogmas here. During Blogmas, bloggers will share a Christmas themed post every day in December until Christmas day. I want to focus on finding gifts or creating them yourself. Christmas for me isn’t about the gifts, but more in showing your family and friends, you care about them. The posts will mostly be related to things that I enjoy myself, such as books, pens, baking and DIY. For an example of what I’ll be blogging about, see last year’s gift guide.

After the 25th, I want to continue the daily blogs with roundups of the past year and looking ahead to what’s coming next year. I’ve already brainstormed all of the topics and it’s going to be fun!

Last minute tip

Every year, Storybundle has a NaNoWriMo-themed bookbundle. I usually buy it since I still need to learn about writing, being a writer and the business side of authorship (or authorpreneurship). I haven’t read all of them, but I do want to point out two books in this year’s bundle: How to Write a Novel by Simon Haynes and You Must Write by Kevin McLaughlin. Both have given a ton of new ideas for my book and how I want to handle future books. If you have a spare $5 (or more if you want the others as well), I highly recommend buying the bundle just for these books. And you can even choose to donate a portion to charity.

Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo? Leave a summary of your project and your profile link below so we can support each other!

4 thoughts on “NaNoWriMo: My 2018 Project

  1. Rachel says:

    I’ve been wanting to take part in NaNoWriMo for years! This has actually inspired me to maybe start writing my novel this year. ‘A devils deal’ sounds super interesting. I’ve just followed you, so I’ll hopefully I’ll follow your progress!

    • Tessa Hastjarjanto says:

      Thank you, Rachel! Good luck with your writing. Hopefully my first draft will be done by the end of the year and I might put up the first chapter if I do so

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