OK, so...as I may have told just about all of you, I have two novels right now. One for NaNo, and one a project of much love into which I've poured six months of hard work with a very good friend of mine here in the Physical Realm. My NaNo project--unofficially dubbed Hammer of the Witches in honor of the dreaded Malleus Malleficarum--is something of much love, too. This is Jude's second chance at a story after his campfire died, and I love him very much. I love where I want him to end up, even if there is much suffering between now and then (though I admittedly will focus more on the building back up rather than the tearing down), and look forward to he and Aoife finding one another.

But my writing partner is five thousand miles away and that makes planning hard. We're never on at the same time. Working via e-mail is all well and good, but sometimes I need to forge forward and wonder if Matt is going to like anything I do. Usually, I can talk him in to going with it or meeting me halfway at the very least (some stuff that he doesn't like, I rather need for Jude's story), but there isn't that joy of shooting ideas back and forth and working in real time. Matt and I have done it for years--just about a decade, actually--so it's not really a problem. We'll get it together. We've even planned that what we're writing for NaNo will only go up to when our characters meet so each of us can write at our own pace.

And then there's Killing Mercutio, that project of love with my RL best friend. It comes from our shared love of Shakespeare and our--somewhat--loathing for Romeo and Juliet. We decided we wanted to save Mercutio because his death was the one that bothered us the most. And the whole novel grew from there. Capulet is evil, the Prince is in his sway, and Benvolio may be related to Ezio Auditore de Firenze. Somehow, I've even fallen in love with Tybalt, whom I'd always loathed before for being an idiot. We even find a place for Peter. I love every inch of this story. It's fun, it's not too deep (but deeper than a lot of stuff), and we're peppering the thing with Shakespeare references. The Friar may-or-may-not be a revived character from another Shakespeare play. It's fun, it's clever, and I love it.

This post is more than just a moan of disconsolate distraction. There is a point to this.

IT'S OK.

It's totally OK that I have two novels that I love and want to write at this very moment. Sure, it might go against the black-and-white rules of NaNo, but it's certainly not against its spirit. If I choose to write 10k for K.M and 40k for H.o.t.W., I am still using NaNo to write a novel. I am still writing 50k in one month. I am still using November to surge forward on projects that I want to write and deserve to be written. I am just fortunate enough that I have two awesome projects that deserve that kind of attention.

Some of you won't be able to even contemplate working on another project. 50k in one month and TWO projects?! Some of you will end up with more ideas than you thought were possible. It'll be like your brain is trying desperately to distract you, to throw flying, dancing, singing, acrobatic squirrels your way in the hopes that...SQUIRREL! But it isn't. Your creativity is, as in many things, sparking MORE creativity. Maybe you want to stop and jot these ideas down, maybe you NEED to write it...either way, GO FOR IT. Just write! Write as much as you can without burning yourself out. Write for as long as the ideas sparkle and the words flow.

I have a feeling Mercutio, Tybalt, and Benvolio (the characters of whom I am in charge) are going to poke their heads into Jude's business. I know Ben and Jude will get along great, Tybalt will be two parts admiration and one part burning jealousy, and Mercutio will see the mind behind Jude's martial prowess and the good heart behind that. And when they show up, I'll give them the attention they deserve, because I love them.

And ultimately, we should all aspire to write for characters we love...even if they are squirrels in the middle of NaNo.
-Quaddy

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