Control: NaNoWriMo 2021
Picture this: a knight puts on his armor before his first battle. He has received all the training, all the education, and now his father, the king, wants him to defend the realm from a barbarian horde. So opens my next novel — The Philosopher’s Guild.
My NaNoWriMo 2021 book exists because I’m a novelist and I like a good challenge. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a novel writing competition. One writes a 50,000 word draft of a novel in a month. I wrote one draft in eighteen days and two drafts in thirty days.
Next scene: the battle. Barbarians, with war paint, axes and spears, charge the beautiful city-state of Lothen with their hide and fur armor and their shortbows and their rage. They are allied with the Sanlians, and no one is worse than the Sanlians. They charge into the battle, and our heroes face a terrible battle with devastating consequences. Sammy, Phillip, and Gotey fight despite being outnumbered and inexperienced.
Furthermore: a murder. Someone’s murder seems to be solved immediately. The villain Hobbes claims to be a monster, a villain, a rogue/assassin who kills anyone he wants because he doesn’t believe in the rule of King Faiyaz. Is there something more, though? Does he work for someone? Who pays the terrible monster to kill members of the Philosopher’s Guild?
Sammy and Phillip question everything. They question society and its values and who should run it. They question morality and good versus evil. They even talk about a cave and whether or not people see reality. They want to solve this murder, but will they get attacked themselves?
And the girls…Carly is mad, mad as hell. She really wants to be in charge of the realm. She is sick to death of King Faiyaz and his brutally unfair policies. She wants everyone to be of the same social class and to have the same amount of money. She will do anything to see that happen…
Mina, rogue, intellectual, genius, adviser to the king, needs to save the realm, but the king’s other adviser is a gentleman named Nicky, Nicky Machiavelli, and she wants to fight against his brutal policies that do what’s best for the realm — no matter the moral implications. She wants to fight for what’s right — but will the king notice or listen?
Sally falls for a guy, and he’s charming and giving, but he may or may not turn out to be a villain intent on destroying everything in Lothen, everything that the Philosopher’s Guild loves and cares for….
In my fantasy tale the Philosopher’s Guild has wild adventures through the city-state of Lothen, fighting to preserve the city and its inhabitants from threats external and internal.
That’s the gist of my NaNoWriMo novel. I’ve written the first two drafts. I want to publish it by my birthday — December 30th — at the latest. In the meantime I am rewriting the story to build stronger character arcs and relationships between the characters…
Thanks, and take care, friends.
