NaNoWriMo 2020: The Options (Patreon)

November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to complete 50,000 or more words of a single fiction project between November 1 and November 30. 

Now, I've done this twice before for NaNoWriMo. And, if you do the math, on average I did it every single month from January through October 2018 while writing The Maretian. So I know I'm capable of doing it.

The problem is, I haven't been able to do it SINCE. And furthermore, those two NaNoWriMo projects I succeded at? Success was only in terms of word count. I never actually finished writing those stories. One of them makes me cringe so hard I don't want to even try to salvage it anymore, and the other is a victim of my growing distaste for the subject matter. (And that's leaving aside my third, failed NaNoWriMo, where I got 14,000 words in, realized I was writing utter dreck, and abandoned the project.)

So this year I very much want to try to do it- and, this time, carry forward the project to completion, even after hitting the NaNoWriMo word count goal. 

But the question is: which story? 

And since my grocery bill depends on you Patrons, you deserve at least some say. 

So here's the deal: every day in November I will log in on Twitch ( https://twitch.tv/redneckgaijin ) and get at least some writing done. If I average 2,000 words per day I easily meet the goal. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays log-in will be at 5 PM (before my game streams); on all other days it will be at 7 PM. You'll get to watch me write, hold me accountable for product, ask questions, and catch typos if you want to.

And I'm putting the specific project up for vote as well. Patrons will see the poll posted sometime Saturday (10-24) morning. Whatever option is winning at the start of my 7 PM game stream on Monday, barring unstoppable writer's block, will be the one I go with.

THE OPTIONS

THE ISEKAI OPTION: THE HERO'S INN

Left to my own devices, this  is probably the one I'd take, simply because it amuses me. For years my joke has been that, if I were isekai'd into a fantasy world, I'd open a hotel offering hot running water, clean towels and sheets, and the like, because in a medieval world anyone able to do that would make ENORMOUS bank. Forget fighting the Dark Lord or creating an industrial revolution or becoming a king; my skills never ran that way in the first place. Just let me run a business- and, in such a world, I think an inn with anachronistic conveniences would be perfect.

Of course, the hero of the story will have to work from scratch- finding a place that doesn't already have an inn but which could sustain one, getting it built, and figuring out how to do things like plumbing and laundry in a world with magic but without industry. And there WILL be a dark lord, because isekai. 

THE PONY OPTION: FORMULA M

I'm pretty sure the majority of you are here to support my pony fanfic works at this point. So for you I offer this option, which I've done a little sketching on but which still seems half-baked to me. Celestia has retired and longs for something to do to indulge her inner adrenalin-junkie. Fortunately she gets an inspiration imported from the human world: motorsport. And when humans decide to use Equestria to test their new magic-motor technology, the pieces come together for a form of racing the pony world's never seen before- where victory and defeat are determined by tenths of a second over an hour of racing. 

The story would closely mirror Formula 1 in format and structure (because I've begun to get into F1 after encountering certain YouTubers during the first COVID lockdown). There would be a CSP-Maretian connection. And, yes, a lot of pony characters would get involved at least in minor roles. My ideas on how this would play out are pretty foggy, though. 

THE FETISH OPTION: WRATH

Remember when I wrote breast-expansion and transformation porn? A few of you who do might still be lingering here. I haven't done it much lately because I haven't really had inspirations which overcome my deep feeling of repeating myself every time I try to write more of it. But if I want a book I can expect to sell without legal issues, that's likely still my best option, so I've been toying with ideas in that vein as well.

One such idea is a sort of modern-fantasy She-Hulk story, where demons and sorcery and not gamma radiation are the key cause of a lot of torn clothing. For this one I have an origin pretty well sketched out and a conclusion kind of penciled in, but I've got nothing to connect the two. You guys might enjoy this, but i t would be a tough writing road for me.

THE EVEN MORE FETISH OPTION: IT'S A PARTY, NOT A HAREM

Yeah. The other option is not one, but THREE transforming-Amazon fighters in a typical RPG world, teaming up with a male fighter who... believe it or not... they are completely uninterested in romantically. The story begins when an ordinary, non-transforming female thief joins their party and gets to know the four of them... and endure the misunderstandings (and flying buttons) that follow. 

This one is even less sketched out than any of the others. I have a reasonable grasp on the characters and the introduction, and one maybe-sorta idea for the climactic scene, but that's it. But if one transforming woman isn't enough, then this would probably be the option you want.

SUGGEST YOUR OWN OPTION

I admit this one is going to be really improbable, since I need to have at least some mental structure for a story before I can write it. But it's just possible something you say might click, so discuss any of the above or enter your own idea into comments on this post. 

I WILL say that I will NOT attempt a Peter is the Wolf novel, prequel or sequel. A sequel would be too spoilerific for the ending I still hope to bring the main story... and my attempt at scenes from a prequel ran aground on the rocks of, "I don't know how to get from there to here."

That's what I've got. Poll goes live, for Patrons ONLY, Saturday morning.