A Needless Murder

After getting Camp NaNo completed last weekend (wow, was that really just last weekend? That feels like so long ago.) I have been brainstorming quite a bit about my first novel, Suzie’s Nightmare. Some of the initial feedback I got for it said that the first chapter was quite good, but it needed something to spice it up a bit before heading into full introductions. So I did just that, and gave a murder scene that ought to grab the reader’s attention. Why are first chapters so freaking difficult to get out anyway? Then I need to go clean up the rewritten introduction of my main characters, including the addition of my vicious little Suzie foil who will be the childhood antagonist of the story. Poor Suzie, like she needs any more suffering in this piece!

So I need to calculate my current novel size to keep me motivated. So take the old book and subtract the the first chapter, then add in what I’ve added to the book so far…

Summary: A ten-year-old girl named Suzie has her small, close-knit world fall apart around her. Her family just moved to the town of Leekston at the beginning of summer, and she and a boy named Fred struck up a friendship almost immediately. But something watches them from the woods, waiting to strike. As Suzie’s life falls apart around her, can she solve the mystery of what’s really going on in this strange rural town?

Project: Suzie’s Nightmare – Draft 3
Deadline: 9/30/2011
New words written: 2,689
Present total word count: 76,489 -5,986 (Ch1) + New = 73,192
Total Word Count for 2011: 90,020

Slowly I’m getting the plot of this novel down, even though it’s going to require a lot of rewriting, adding characters in, and pinpointing the overarching theme of this story down on the ground. Giving myself two months since I’ve got vacation and Dragon*Con coming up within that time frame. I think that’s a pretty generous estimate. 😉