So NaNo didn't exactly get my word count right, but nonetheless..
I am a NaNoWriMo Winner for 2015. That's the good news. :)
Bad news is that this is yet another NaNoWriMo where, despite the fact I've reached over 50,000, the novel's nowhere near done. My actual word count is around 62,000 - some of it was handwritten, and the rest of it was typed, so I tried the word generator to supplement what was typed...and it screwed up, but I'm leaving the count on the site it as is. Probably when I end up finishing it, it'll be 85,000 - 95,000 words. So it's hefty.
The idea for "Mark of Contagion" came from a number of inspirations. (Took forever to come up with a title, but nonetheless it finally came to me mid month as I was writing). I knew I wanted to pen a female protagonist of color in a fantasy realm that was a blend of old and new scenescapes - so I ended up creating a blend of tech heavy environments and rustic environments in the novel as the backdrop. Not to mention I've been somewhat inspired from settings that were designed in the backdrop of the old Amiga game "Shadow of the Beast" (which I've heard they're remaking for the PS4). I think that's the best way to describe the mind and vision I had when penning the novel.
Sadi's a young woman (15-16 years old) who lost her entire village to a brutal plague. First part of it physically turns the person into a foul looking creature (and this is a transient stage - meaning the person infected can turn back to a human if they can manage the symptoms), second part they lose their humanity and ability to make decisions, third part is a self-destruct stage where the monster's body breaks down, so ultimately it destroys them from within. The onset of the plague was so brutal in Sadi's village that her people never went through these distinct stages, and she's the only survivor left to tell what happened to her village - at least among the humans who weren't either killed or turned. She realizes that she's symptomatic of the plague and that she only has so much time to figure out the cause, how to cure it, and how to warn others of its on-coming (because otherwise it'll kill her), but she fights an uphill battle because not everyone is welcoming of her (since she's symptomatic), and some even think she's untruthful and might've been behind the killings of her village and want to kill her before she loses her humanity. But she travels with a group of colorful comrades who believe in her mission and want to save her before she succumbs to the plague. That's the basic description of it without major spoilers.
I still have yet to determine how I want to end it, but I know that I'm still working on structuring the novel so far, and there may be some characters I decide to keep and some I take out.
I'm pretty sure that this novel will be one that I work on for another year or so, so after a point, I may set it to the side and try to finish other projects once I get the first draft done.
But I'm at least happy to have gotten the first leg of it completed. It took me all month, so my other projects are going to be on delay, but nonetheless, I'm going to start back reading and writing at my normal pace in December.
Happy reading/writing all,
Rose
14
2
