NaNoWriMo. Are you down for the cause?

I've never exactly "won" NaNoWriMo. The first time I did it, I think I made it to about 35K then said screw it. The 2nd time I went over the 50K mark with The Unexpected Clash of Strangers, made a ton of progress on it, but then crashed miserably in the end.

Each time I've done NaNoWriMo, I've never had a fresh new idea. I know that's the jist of things, but really who the heck is going to kick me out for NOT having a fresh new idea? Exactly. Last year while having the flu I read some of The Iron Fey series and watched an ABC Family movie about a princess and it struck me that I wanted to write my own world. I've never been a big fantasy reader, but I absolutely loved fairy tales as a kid. My favorite show? Grimm's Classic Fairy Tales. I would come a runnin' full force into the living room when I heard the theme song.

The idea, like most of my ideas, kind of deflated after a month or so. Who was I kidding? ME write a fantasy book? I've only read contemporary novels forever. I had no business trying to come up with kingdom names. So I moved on to other stories then to a few months of not really giving a crap if I ever wrote again (that's for another post). Last month, my characters were tugging at my mind. I went back over what I had written (about 80 pages of stuff), and I picked it apart. Took the good out and left the bad in another file and started tackling the sucker.

I have a new plot.

A few new characters.

A whole lot of bloodshed.

And some awesome creatures lurking through my fairy tale realm.

And most of all, I have a kick butt MC who is about to go on a ride of her life.

Oh, and I have boys. Hot boys.

For my NaNoWriMo, I am working on what I've always nicknamed: Fairy Tale. I suck completely at writing a synopsis, but here's the jist:

Gabby stopped believing in fairy tales the night her father was brutally killed before her eyes. What she saw was a creature in a red hood, but that's not what the cameras caught. Nearly 10 years later, Gabby cannot help but notice how things are starting to get strange. She's seeing things she saw as a child. Like a fairy in her locker, trolls tripping the basketball players, and then the biggest nightmare of all: the creature who killed her father. 


The moment Gabby thinks she's safe, a realm opens up, and suddenly her and her best friend, Jesse, are sucked in to it. Determined to get back home, Gabby takes on the help of a guy named Mason and his band of not-so-merry men. But Mason seems to have his own agenda, and when they're found by a dark prince, Gabby is starting to realize that her father had failed to ever tell her the truth of who he really was. Who her mother was, and who Gabby is destined to be.




Hey. Don't say I didn't warn you I suck at writing summaries.

What about you? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Find me: sammyjones57 and let's cheer each other on!