Bernadette Benda

IT’S TIME. IT’S REALLY REALLY TIME.

NaNoWriMo is coming up THIS WEEKEND. (AND The Mandalorian. We’ll just ignore election day looming in the near distance). I’m am PUMPED. Oh and it’s gonna be Halloween (almost time for me to sport my glow-in-the-dark elf years.)

This will be my 5th year doing NaNoWriMo *gapes*. It’s become one of those things that I look forward every year to. And I’ve also gotten into a schedule where I draft during November and then finish the novel sometime in January or spring, and then edit and revise things the rest of the year. Like….I have a book production schedule almost. Kinda weird??

THIS year’s NaNoWriMo will be high fantasy (my first love) (though, back in September I came up with an idea for another thriller and really want to start working on it….hoping maybe I can finish this year’s NaNo novel fast *looks at busy schedule and grimaces*) (seriously though, you do not want to see my planner. It looks…..insane.)

I have at times mentioned my Snow Queen/Heart of Ice fantasy retelling that I will be writing this November. But now you’re going to get a full rundown of it. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to:

RED HEART, ICE MOUNTAIN

(Yes, yes I know. The dumbest title ever, but it’s better than me calling it Snow Queen/Heart of Ice/Dash of Han Solo. So this is what you get)

As mentioned before hand, it’s a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s Snow Queen and Heart of Ice which can be found in the Green Fairy Book (it’s a long one, which is cool).

I originally thought of this idea back in January, when life was simple. (I thought it was going to be such a good year. I gave myself a little writing retreat, where I toyed around with this idea, watched Once Upon a Time, edited, and just….had a good time until *lowers voice* the plague came).

It was actually really fun because one night I just started writing from the perspective of this person climbing a snowy mountain and reaching two great doors and it just…exploded.

I’m not going to give you a blurb (sorry) (I really just don’t have time to write one, AND though I have done some outlining there are a lot of things that are still vague), but there will be VIBES and other stuff that I will give you.

First off, aesthetics:

snow/ice/knives/monsters/goblins/war/mud/magic/friendship/guilt/dust/desert/gambling/
battle/stone/marble/gems/hearts/mirrors/

And of course a well-curated playlist (which of course has a lot of stuff from Hans Zimmer and random songs from stuff like….Balto)

And since I won’t give you a blurb, let me at least introduce you to some characters (interesting fact, the first four characters (which are the main characters) are all really young. Like 18-20 which is…which I’m excited about because I haven’t written that age in a little bit.) (I mean that’s not really young but typically I’ve written “older” characters lately (or kids) and am just like…wow…this is almost YA.)

Bram Hendricus

MC. Made of sass and cockiness. But also sad because sad things happen in the beginning. Out for revenge. Survivor guilt. Looks like he would kill you but actually a cinnamon role. Has a spaniel.

Zermora

QUEEN. Warrior. Will yell at the you. Overwhelmed but put together. Looks like she would kill you and will actually kill you. Has a fire breathing horse because *waves hands* “magic”.

Malo

Ropes Bram into things. Also made of sass and cockiness, so Bram + Malo = idiots. Looks like a cinnamon roll but will kill you. Has lot’s of schemes.

Nomasonto

Nickname Nom. Partner in crime with Zemora. Life of the party (not that there is a party…). Looks like a cinnamon roll and is a cinnamon roll.

~~~~~

And….that’s all the characters I’m gonna talk about because *spoilers* Now what you’re really probably thinking is….why is Bram the only one with a last name? Well, let me tell you.

*crickets*

I DON’T KNOW. So far I’ve been really proud of the prep work I’ve been doing for this novel and now….guess I overlooked that one, little, thing *sigh*.

So I’m excited. There’s gonna be a big war, a lot of “wHo Is THE rEAl ViLaiN???”. I’m excited for writing the friendship dynamic with the four main characters, SO pumped to write the Snow Queen (I’m combining her character with Princess Sabella from Heart of Ice).

But the MOST exciting thing (how many times have I used this word??) is I have an epic plan for the first night of NaNoWriMo.

It’s a Saturday night, right?? Nothing to do on Sunday. SO. I’m planning to pull an all-nighter.

*everyone looks at me like I dropped my brain*

I’ve never pulled an all-nighter and won’t have a need to in the foreseeable future (unless Gondor calls for aid and I must ride through the night). AND, since I know I’m going to be stupid busy this November, I’d like to hit it out of the park the first day and get……10k words??? 12k???

OH AND IT’S DAYLIGHT SAVINGS OR WHATEVER. That means we get an extra hour. So if you stay up till 2:00 am we’ll go through a time warp and revert back to 1:00 am and we get another hour.

Got some weird time loop stuff going on.

ANYWHO. I’m sad October is leaving us soon *weeps* but really excited for this weekend and all the fun things happening in November (just forget about the none fun things ok).

I don’t know if I’ll be as successful as last year’s NaNo. I hope that I’ll actual write way more words but…. *again looks at planner* I’d like to hopefully finish Red Heart, Ice Mountain this year because I got plans on other things….too many projects.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Any other fun plans for November? What are the aesthetics for your current writing project?