Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2014!

I’m so happy its finally this month. While I’m a writer 365 days a year, I like NaNo because it gives me the motivation to stop procrastinating on Tumblr or Netflix and sit down and write my novel. It gets my butt in gear basically.

So I’m really happy its here and I’m really excited to be participating today.

For those of you that don’t know much about NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month), you can refer to my kickoff post for the month here :) I’ll be talking about my novel, my progress, writing in general and more all month long and I have a special post coming November 8th filled with writing advice from some seriously amazing YA authors.

So let’s jump in then, shall we?

About My Novel

Last year, my novel was The Awakened. At the time, the title was The Reawakened but I’ve since changed that. You guys know a lot about this novel because I’ve talked a lot about it in the past year. I’ve since last year finished it, edited it and am now shopping around for an agent.

The plan was to write the sequel to The Awakened (which has a title but cannot be shared because spoilers!) for NaNoWriMo but…I kind of need a break from the science fiction right now. Its a lot harder to write than I ever thought it was going to be and I am focused on finding an agent for the book at the moment so I wanted to work on something different.

And that is the novel I’m writing. Its untitled! If you follow all these NaNoWriMo posts, you’ll find out more about the novel, the characters and so on, and there will be a contest at the end for titles for this novel. So I hope some of you are paying attention!

But anyway…

This novel is centered around a girl named Evie Cordova and the town of Macon, where she has lived for most of her life. See, the town of Macon is a beautiful coastal California town, complete with good food, friendly neighbors, a boardwalk on the beach, and a booming tourist economy. But the one thing the town is obsessed with more than anything is baseball. And not just baseball but the Macon Rebels, the local college’s baseball team. The entire town is decked in orange and white and worships the players like superheroes.

Evie’s dad once played for the Rebels before playing in the Major Leagues so she’s grown up on baseball. Baseball is the beginning and end of every single day. She worships the Rebels, memorizes the stats of every player, watches every single game eagerly. She anxiously awaits each batch of new freshmen and talks of nothing but baseball. Then her dad becomes the coach and recruits young Jesse Valdez, a high school phenomenon, to come pitch for the Rebels. He’s incredible, on and off the field, and Evie is determined to make him her boyfriend.

Fast forward two years. Evie’s love for baseball? Gone. She’s now at the university and she’ll do anything she can to steer clear of the baseball team, especially now that Jesse is a star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, engaged to her twin sister Lucy and the father of her niece, Ava. Something happened two years ago, something that changed her love for baseball.

Then she mets Austin Young, a junior transfer from the University of Texas. He’s struggling to make something of himself in the baseball world but he’s determined, working every single day to make himself better and better. But he keeps failing, his batting average is terrible and he makes too many mistakes on the field. Evie knows that she can help him, she knows exactly what to do to make him better but she DOESN’T want to be involved with baseball anymore, especially when it involves a hot baseball player. Because we still don’t know what happened a few years ago…

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I understand that this is the longest synopsis ever…because I’ve only written about 3000 words and I need to hone the plot and the characters and all of that. As it comes more and more together, so will the synopsis haha. But if you have any ideas of a title, email them to whatanerdgirlsays at gmail dot com!

Where I Write

I write in my room. I’ve tried coffee shops and libraries and I just can’t do it. I don’t like quiet. I get distracted in quiet. I need background noise. So I write on my laptop because I type infinitely faster than I write long hand, even though I kind of prefer to write longhand. I usually have the fan going, though I don’t tonight because I’m so cold. I like writing comfy, seriously, I need pjs or sweats on.

I also always always always always have a water bottle next to me. Most authors tend to be of the “I need caffeine NOW” but I don’t really go that way. I’m not a coffee person. Seriously, I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack every time I drink coffee. I do have a slight addiction to iced teas BUT water is my thing. There’s a full ice cold water bottle right next to me as I write this.

Then there’s either Netflix on or music on. Right now, its Netflix but mostly because I’m blogging and blogging doesn’t require as much concentration as writing so Netflix works better. But once I start back on the novel, it’ll be music. I need noise. I can’t work in silence, it is SO loud. (Yes, I just quoted Sarah Dessen right there). I can’t handle that. So I listen to music. I’m not going to tell you what yet because that’s a whole ‘nother post!

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Thanks for listening to me ramble on about my novel and the quirks I have when it comes to where I write and what I need to write.

If you have any suggestions about a title, remember to email them to whatanerdgirlsays at gmail dot com. If you don’t, no biggie, I will remind you throughout the month, and future posts will help even more to get a title in the works!

And share your NaNo stories! Good luck to all those participating!