Once again, it’s my favorite time of year! Well, besides Christmas. It’s time for Camp NaNoWriMo!
After July Camp NaNo last year, I felt like I was robbed a month of writing. I’ve been doing so much editing recently—Swapped, which was published in February; Secret Project #2, which is just about finished; and I’ve started working on Powerful again! While all the editing is great (because I’m an oddity in the writer’s community with how much I love editing), it’s hard on the writer side of my brain which can, in turn, hurt my editing when I have to rewrite.
So, I pulled out one of my long lost fairy tale retelling ideas (one of the ones I wanted to work on last year) and I started plotting. My idea was already mostly filled out, but as I started working on the finer points, some things changed.
I love working on world building ideas, because as I was coming up with the name for a made up illness, I had an insane burst of creativity and I started outlining two other projects set in the same world, where the characters interact a bit. It felt really good to have this creative episode in the midst of all my editing.
So, here’s my Camp NaNo Project for this month: Damaged, the first book of the Daeragos Chronicles. It is a Cinderella retelling set in an ancient Greece inspired world. After the war between Melor and Braya is resolved, the treaty between the two islands is broken with the assassination of the young queen, Dahlia*, betrothed to Prince Hector of Melor. With the need for a new alliance, he invites Princess Adelpha from the neighboring island of Fraedos to visit and to start negotiations for a marriage treaty, despite the conflict over her claims to the throne after the death of her half-sister, Princess Annelle. But maybe Princess Annelle isn’t as dead as everyone thinks. And if so, what is keeping her from reclaiming her throne?
I’ve updated my sidebar with a Damaged word counter! Follow me throughout the month of April for updates!
*You may recognize the name Dahlia, from my old Snow White retelling idea. Well, over the past few years, I’ve reworked and perfected my Snow White idea and soon I’ll let you in on more about the second book in the Daeragos Chronicles, titled Defiant. And yes, Damaged is a reworked idea for the story Ella I wanted to crossover with Rose & Thorn. I’ve got lots of fairy tale retelling ideas floating around. We’ll see how many of them get used.
~Allie
