NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a fun writing event that takes place in the month of November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It is a lot, but if you’re lucky, there is a NaNo leader in your community who organizes fun writing events with other like-minded people who want to write a book. I have met aspiring authors like myself as well as people who are already authors. It’s a great way to finally write that book you’ve always been meaning to write as well as meet people who would love to help encourage you. You can find out more about it at www.nanowrimo.org.
I’ve participated in NaNo every year since 2015. It has really helped me get back on the writing horse. I had already started writing StarFire Dragons in 2014, but much of it was already completed by November of 2015. So my project for NaNoWriMo in 2015 was writing the sequel, The Dragon Emperor. In 2016, I wrote Warrior Outcast, which was to be book three in the series. However, after I wrote it, I realized I needed another story to take place before Warrior Outcast. I wasn’t ready to write that book in 2017 or 2018, but I’m writing it now for NaNoWriMo, November 2019 and it goes something like this:
Dragon’s Fall or The Last Dragon (I haven’t decided between these two titles yet)
After the betrayal of his brother, the last heir of the Dragon Empire must live up to his father’s expectations even if it means accepting new tech from a race of shady cyborgs and leading an army of ruthless warriors.
So far I have written 32,447 words.
Cyborgs inspired by “Universal Soldier” starring Jean-Claude van Damme
So if I have written at least four books in this series so far, where are they? Why aren’t they published? Well, writing a book in 30 days means writing quickly. And writing quickly means no editing. After I finished book one, StarFire Dragons, I self-edited it. Then I hired beta-readers to give me feedback. After that, I hired a content editor who tore it up. She broke my heart with her snarky feedback, so I stopped writing. Something inspired me to say FU to the content editor and I began writing again. I also decided my content editor was right about many of the wrong elements in my story, so I studied up on my writing skills and fixed the errors in my story. After that, I sent my story to another editor, The Other Stephen King, Stephen H. King, who also did a great job of fixing my grammar errors. Even then, I wasn’t quite sure if my book was ready for publishing. I tweaked the story at least two more times before I was finally satisfied.
Sign up for my mailing list HERE to keep updated on StarFire Dragons and its sequels.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Dawn Ross 