So… I’m excited for this 👀 As someone who has attempted Nanowrimo at least three times by now but never properly committed to it, to finally formally announce a project (on my very own personal website, no less) is something else.
If you don’t know what Nanowrimo is, it’s a writing challenge that takes place in November where people all around the world try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s not for everyone—it is a challenge after all, and not something that should be undertaken for anyone wanting to write a novel. And it’s during such a busy time of the year to boot. But I think it will be really rewarding to pull off at least once, and get the beginnings of a draft on paper. I’m not dreaming to become a published writer, but I do have so many OCs I’d love to give a story to.
You know how Nanowrimo groups people into “planners”, “pantsers” and “plantsers”? I’ve always thought myself to be a “pantser” based off of some short stories I’ve written. I’d just write scenes and find ways to connect them until it becomes a cohesive product. Two out of the three times for Nanowrimo, I thought I could pull that off with something novel-length.
And two out of three times I failed. (Well, I failed the other one out of three, but it wasn’t because I didn’t have an outline.) Other than not truly committing to the challenge, I went in with characters but no plot, and ran out of things to write. So I guess for short stories, being a “pantser” works well, but maybe not for longform stories. At least not for me.
This year, however, I believe I have a much better shot at making it to the finish line. Because (drumroll) I finally have a plot outline. And it feels right. Honestly speaking though, I’m kinda nervous because I haven’t written anything long-form before and I’m constantly in awe of other people’s writing that it feels strange to write something myself and call myself a writer. But I want to give this my best shot. Can’t improve at writing if I don’t write, right?
So for Nanowrimo 2022 I’m embracing the “plantser” identity and announcing my 2022 Nanowrimo challenge, Meet Me in the Hollows. (You can find the Spotify playlist here.)
Meet Me in the Hollows
# new adult/young adult, paranormal investigators, paranormal, horror?, romance, no it's not a paranormal romance sorry, ragtag team try to solve cases, it's like scooby-doo i guess?
Casper Lim can see ghosts.
And not just ghosts. From leech-like creatures that may resemble vampires to shadowy tentacle-like wisps and hands that walk on their own—Casper has called these entities “Hollows” for as long as he can remember, and has successfully started his exorcism-slash-investigative agency with just one other employee.
Trouble is—Casper is the only one who can see Hollows in their true forms. And it’s hard to keep up when he has so many cases and he’s having trouble solving literally all of them. So when he hires Elena Holloway onto his investigative team, will his paranormal investigations finally bear some water, or will he get more than he asked for?
Excerpt
Note: This excerpt will not make it to the official Nanowrimo word count. In fact, I don’t think it’ll be in the actual draft, either—I wrote it as a writing exercise and so that I could put an excerpt up without making word counting a chore. Starting from zero, so to speak.
“So, um…” Elena tries to smile. “What do I do, exactly?”
“Nothing,” Casper says, as he puts on a transparent raincoat as if it were a Hazmat suit. He turns his head to look at Elena, wearing a face she cannot read. “You’re an archivist. A… a database manager,” he says, gesturing with his hands as he spoke. “This isn’t in your job description.”
Elena frowns. Of course it wasn’t part of her job description; she knew that. And yet, she couldn’t help but feel wronged. Or betrayed, or insert-other-heavy-feeling-here that made her chest feel tight even though she had nothing to be angry about.
More than anything, though, Elena recognizes the feeling that has landed on top of the pile of emotions. It tastes something akin to disappointment.
“Hey.” Elena glances in the direction of Andy’s voice as he steps into the area, pushing himself into the small parcel of living room enclosed by the couches. “Didn’t we already talk about this?”
“And I’ve already told you,” Casper sighs, pausing his motions of putting on gloves, “that dealing with Hollows isn’t something anyone can, or should do.”
Beside her, Andy crosses his arms. “Well I don’t have your ghost-detecting abilities—”
“—Hollows,” Casper interjects.
“—Hollow-detecting abilities, and yet I’m here. Cas, we need more people. Do you want there to be a pile of open cases on your desk every morning or do you want to actually close them?”
At this, Casper puts down the glove he was fumbling with for the last minute on top of the kitchen table. Elena half-expects him to get mad and start shouting, but he is as calm as ever, which only makes Elena feel even more frustrated. “Fine, then,” he says, his voice tight. “Elena, you can… take notes or something. I suppose it could be helpful to have another record instead of me writing from memory.”
Elena finds her mouth speaking for her before her brain could finish the thought. “And how am I supposed to do that if I can’t even see them?”
“I…” Casper falters. There’s a moment where the three are drenched in a heavy silence, broken only by a snort from Andy, who covers his mouth with a hand as Casper glares at him. Elena watches as Casper resumes his failed glove operation and begins to put the remaining glove onto his left hand (while still glaring, which only made it comedic in a moment that was undeniably not funny at all, at least not to her). At the moment where Elena believes Casper would never speak another word and simply launch himself into the fridge-void, Casper starts up again. “I’ll just… describe it to you then. You can write about that. Also note down what it looks like to you. Can you draw well?”
Her heart leaps to her throat. “Sure,” Elena says, before she could say anything else that sounded like a no. “I mean, I’ve drawn plenty before,” she continues, her face flushing a little. It wasn’t as if it was an outright lie. Elena did win an art contest back in eighth grade, and her eighth-grade self had been super proud of it to the point that the piece of art is still framed at her parents’ place. Not that she hardly considered that to be representative of any artistic talent, but.
She had no other option. If she were to participate in this case, she’d have to exaggerate a few of her skills. Besides, her eighth-grade self would have been thrilled to know that her future self was part of a paranormal investigation team.
Elena still thinks that it all sounded unreal. Paranormal investigation. And that she could be a part of it at all strikes her as mind-blowing.
“That settles it then.” Casper turns to the fridge, which—now that Elena had refocused herself on what was happening around them—had begun to emit a pulsing glow around its edges like a sick firefly. Her pulse quickening at the strange sight, Elena quickly reaches for her phone from her bag, seconds before Casper opens the fridge door and… vanishes.
Leave a Reply to Cerys Cancel reply