You may have noticed I’ve been somewhat absent this week…relying on pre-written book reviews, links, and blog tour posts to get me through. 🙂 Instead of blogging, I’ve been busy working on my NaNoWriMo novel. (For those of you who haven’t heard about it, November is National Novel Writing Month, and participants around the globe spend the month consuming large quantities of coffee and chocolate, and attempting to write a 50,000 word draft in 30 days.)

Fellow NaNoWriMo participant Trey Schnarr tagged me to do the NaNoWriMo tag, so I thought I’d take a break from my novel and give it a whirl. (Thanks Trey!) Be sure to go visit Trey, and if you’re doing NaNo this year, feel free to add me as a writing buddy.  This tag was created by Kristina Horner.

What was the name of the first novel you attempted with NaNo?
My first try (in 2013) was titled “When the Bough Breaks“. It was a ghost story.

Give us a 1 sentence summary of what you’re writing this year.
A young adult novel involving multiple-world theory as fact, and the ability of some individuals to pass between these worlds.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
This advice wasn’t actually given to me, but I relate to it completely. Sometimes the hardest part is just sitting still and starting. The only way to write is by DOING it, instead of thinking about it.

This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy, and that hard. ~Neil Gaiman

Did you ever take a year off from NaNo? Why?
I haven’t – 2013 was my first try and I have participated each year since.

What’s your biggest inspiration when figuring out what to write?
I keep a notebook with ideas in it and by the time November comes around, I usually have several to choose from. Last year, my novel was based on a dream I’d had a few weeks before. I don’t even know where this year’s idea came from – I’m sure I saw or heard something that triggered it, but characters just popped up in my head, along with a vague idea of where they were and what they were doing.

Read us the first sentence from one of your novels. Ok, I’m going to cheat a bit here and give you a paragraph. I’ve read the first sentence of each of them and realized that alone, they are not very exciting! 🙂 This is from this year’s novel.

I’m afraid of a lot of things. Mostly the same things everyone else is afraid of – spiders, rabid dogs, gypsy curses, cancer. I fear those things but I don’t dwell on them. What I’m most afraid of, what terrifies me every night while I’m lying alone in the dark trying to go to sleep, is the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. And before you ask, no, I don’t live with some monster who beats me, no abusive step-father or evil uncle, no drunken mother coming to wake me so she can blame me for all of her own failings. My father died when I was just six, I barely remember him, and my mother is a kind, loving, normal (almost to the point of dullness) woman. It’s not who is on the stairs that I’m worried about. When I hear the footsteps, my mom is already in bed, asleep. I’ve heard the footsteps every night for almost two weeks now, and when I go into the hall to look, there is no one there.

Why do you love writing?
I love reading, and writing gives me the same kind of opportunity to enjoy a story, but while controlling the outcome.

I don’t know how many other NaNo participants might be reading this, but if you are one, then I tag you!