It’s going to be a hell of a year for this challenge.
If you’re new here, NaNoWriMo is a yearly challenge to write 50,000 words of a story without constantly going back to edit things. The goal is to get a draft done. I’ve used this challenge to write the first drafts for both volumes of The Hesitant Hero and I’m currently attempting to do the same for volume 3. The latest version of volume 2 looked vastly different from what I wrote as a draft, but several characters, moments and ideas made it in. That’s kind of the point, get a good idea of what the story should be like, or find out if certain ideas don’t work out.
I’ll be updating here regularly for those who are curious as other posts will be kept to a minimum. Writing 50,000 words and then writing even more on the side is a bit much. That’s why these posts might be super short, but we’ll manage. I also went a week without any good sleep due to stress causing my muscles to hurt when I lay down. On top of that I’ve started taking antidepressants for the first time in over 10 years, so I’m just a walking mess of a person right now. So what is volume 3 going to be like? Well, I’ve written the first three chapters so far. I want to focus on three things with this volume in particular.
The first thing I want to do – which I think might be obvious – is finish up the current storylines. Our heroes want to find out what happened to their friends and figure out what is going on with the crown prince’s sudden disappearance. These two things need to be resolved and I think a third installment is a good moment to do so. That way I can work on the next story I have been figuring out after this without things getting too chaotic.
The second thing I really want to do in this volume is delve into the history of Marsolin. Marsolin will be the main setting for this story and I want to take my time and properly develop a city. That means a lot of the details will be a complete mess in the first draft and will have to take some work fixing up when I finish the draft and go back to do the first round of editing. That’s part of the fun though.
The third thing I want to do is set up some of the more long term storylines. There is still a prophetic reason why Mana was summoned to this world after all and putting aside if she’s up to the task or even willing to save the kingdom, the looming threat is still going to be there. I want to start developing some of the first signs of this. That’s not to say the current arc isn’t important to the longer story, but I’ve so far been withholding most details to keep a little bit of suspense. I want Mana and Cobal to start figuring out what is really happening in this volume so that they can start aiming for a proper goal.
And of course I have more ideas than just these, but I shouldn’t get too crazy with it. I am curious what they’re going to learn about spending all this time in a town of art and learning. I’m sure it will be a fruitful stay for the party and they’ll learn a lot of interesting skills.
But all of that will only happen if I have enough energy to write and since I haven’t started on today’s chunk of words yet I’m going to leave it at this and get to work. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 