Day 12: A Late Start

     Look! I'm actually writing! What with the conference and not being able to decide whether or not to really do NaNo this year, I got a late start, but started I have!

     I spent the first 8 days character-sketching and outlining. Inventing the major plot points was the hardest part, and now that it's over…I still have the whole mountain to climb! I'm a slow writer, and 50,000 words is a lot.

    But, I am glad I'm at the point of writing. I'm glad I decided to try this. And now that I've begun, I hope the rest will come easier.

     The novel I'm writing is about Wynna, the dragon-rider. As part of my pre-writing I studied the driving factor of fantasy novels: conflict. This is something I'm bad at writing. I tend to take recycle the same conflicts (war brewing, the people unhappy with the monarch because of heavy taxing), or I just keep my characters happy and far from discomfort.
     This blog post: Conflict in Fantasy, was really helpful in establishing that conflict is necessary and in showing what it is, the different types it can be broken down into, and how they all work.

   Even if you're not writing fantasy, check it out! And let me end with an inspiring quote for this frigid Wednesday:

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

--Robert F. Kennedy