Brace yourselves: NaNoWriMo is coming

Here we are again in mid October with another NaNoWriMo rushing toward us. Last November, I started my Haunted Amusement Park story. I’ve been working on it since then and the story has gotten stronger, the characters and their motivations have gotten deeper and my sense of confidence about how it will be as a completed novel has stayed high. Much credit goes to my writing group, the Page Turners, who have helped me improve with each draft.

We’ve decided as a group to embrace NaNoWriMo this year. My writing buddies Lisa and Burl will continue to work on their novels in progress. I’m going to pause the Amusement Park story and write something completely different. A new story, with new characters in a genre I’ve never tried before – romance.

The team at NaNoWriMo.org have again organized pre-November activities to prime our creative pumps and ramp up our enthusiasm – and preparedness – for the writing marathon to come. The juices are flowing and I know this about the upcoming project:

Working title: Wrong Date, Right Guy

Genre: trans queer/cis gay romance/rom-com

Time period: contemporary, near future, post pandemic (Yes, I’ve decided to take an optimistic approach)

Location: here-ish

MC: queer trans masculine NB person who decides the time is right to pursue a relationship with a cis gay man.

Other characters: MC’s current poly partner, various cis gay men, THE cis gay man, queer and trans BFFs, and others to be named later.

For more about November writing madness, go to NaNoWriMo.org. There are local or regional groups of other WriMos almost everywhere, meeting and supporting virtually. There are lots of cool swag and inspirational items in the shop. If this becomes an annual obsession, you’re doing it right.