NaNoWriMo2020 – Choices

NaNoWriMo2020 is now just days away. I started last week with a lot of options for which story take on during my month-long quest for 50K words.

One idea was to expand on the story of Merton, the 4 year old who murdered his nanny to open a portal to another dimension and is actually an alien assassin.

Another possibility was to expand on a story about an old guy who survives the end of civilization as we know it.

Still another is the story of Clive, the trans guy who loses his job and discovers another world hidden in plain sight.

And finally, there was the story stub I wrote about a young person harassed by ‘plaguers’ who escapes them to run home only to end up in quarantine.

Those were all fine ideas and great potential starting points. Instead of choosing one of those, I’m going with something completely new – a story that started to brew in my mind after I saw this image, from a collection of haunting photos presented as part of a #nanowrimo series designed to help folks who wanted to prep for their November novel writing journey.

This image, from the Bored Panda – 31 Abandoned Places, got caught in my mental craw. I kept coming back to it. Along with this one:

I wondered what it would be like to live near an abandoned amusement park. As I daydreamed about that setting, first one character, then another, made themselves known. A story began to spin on the loom.

So this is what I’m writing in November for NaNoWriMo 2020:

Young person comes of age while struggling with gender identity, small town mindsets and restrictive parents. Without handing you any spoilers, there is a haunted, abandoned amusement park, a murder mystery and a fortune to be had. There’s sex, nonbinary gender, running away from parental abuse, a ghost, numerous persons who have ill-intent, and a growing list of clues and evidence.

I’m aiming for YA supernatural mystery with queerness.