Friday Forays In Fiction: Intentions

moar funny pictures
As promised last week, I've selected the WIP I wish to focus on for the next several weeks. I'm aiming my focus on the finish line for Home Is Where the Horror Is AKA Crystal's story.

(Crystal's Story: part one; part two; part three; part four; part five; part six; part seven; part eight; part nine; part ten; part eleven; part twelve; part thirteen; part fourteen; part fifteen; part sixteen; )

I was already leaning toward's Crystal's story last Friday but wanted to give it more thought. Then last weekend my niece's vote in favor of Crystal tipped me over. The last time I focused on this story was around Easter of last year. My attention was derailed when I was hit hard by a virus (me, not my puter) probably the flu. By the time I felt up to writing again it was time to focus on NaNo. Then during NaNo news of my mom's broken hip....and four weeks ago I returned from a six month stay helping my sister with her care. And so went a year!

It's nearly time to put focus on prepping for NaNo again already. Especially if certain of my WIP still eligible were to be chosen--a few need some heavy research prep.

One possibility is to go with the novel containing Brook's story. Brook is a character in Crystal's story and much of her story is set in the same motel as the sections of Crystal's story in which she appears. That makes a lot of sense in a way. It wouldn't be such a wrench to get my head into the story.

There is one major con though. Brook's story was the one I used for my very first NaNo attempt in 2004. But since I discovered and joined NaNo less than 10 days from the deadline that year and didn't get more than a few K in word count... Hmm. Maybe if I promise to not look at that old file and start from scratch? Or put more focus on the POV sections of other characters in the story? See, sometime in the last few years I folded Brook's story in with Kay, Lance and Atticus' stories in my WIP To Sip the Light Prismatic, a novel set in the same story world as Faye's.

Another possibility is to go with Faye's twin sister Julia's story, The Lever of Love. That one has so many common plot points with Faye's story which can be a plus--and a minus. A plus in that so much of the story is already well imagined already. A minus because the same issues that plague me regarding Faye's story would do so with Julia's. But maybe coming at those issues from a fresh angle would help. The Lever of Love is going to be ( I think) written entirely in the form of letters, journal and diary entries, blogs, email, IMs with a sprinkling of news headlines and student essays and other things that Julia either writes or reads.

Yet another candidate for NaNo this year is Must Everything That Rises Be Submerged? a YA novel that is probably (though only peripherally) in the FOS story world also. The drawback for this one is that I would need to immerse myself in the stories, lit crit and bio of Flannery O'Connor for several weeks as my precocious little protagonists is an expert on the subject and the plot, metaphors and theme is supposed to reflect those of O'Connor's preoccupations.

Low on the list of potential NaNo novels for this year are A Tale of a Wail and the first in my fantasy trilogy A Wailing Womb. The former is set in the FOS story world. The latter is completely free of it. Both are less likely candidates because of the huge amount of prep work they both need.