Finishing Party, Camp NaNo Plans (or the Lack Thereof), and Another Frozen Parody

GUYS. THIS MORNING AT 2:11 I FINISHED THE SECOND DRAFT OF MY WORK IN PROGRESS, NOXUMBRA!

I am so thrilled to be done with this draft. It's just as holey and in need of fixing as the first draft, but the holes this time are slightly smaller and lots of loose ends have been cut away.

The final word count is 83,165, though there are several spots where I glossed over what happened by putting down [Stuff happens.] I'll fill those in later. I also broke my record for most words written in a day. It was previously somewhere around 6k, and now it is somewhere around 8k.

Many thanks to those of you who have encouraged me throughout this process, and extra thanks to Christophe Beck and Frode Fjellheim for the Frozen score. I think I must have listened to it half a dozen times last night. The pieces The Great Thaw (Vuelie Reprise) and Epilogue were perfect for finishing this story.

What's next for me, you ask? Well, the sequel to this book, brilliantly titled Book 2, which will be my Camp NaNo project. And which apparently I'll be pantsing, as I have very little idea as to what the plot is. Here's the basic blurb:

“For the last three years, Silla has run her father’s household for him while an illness slowly drained him of life. Now that he’s dead, the estate should be hers. But her father’s will says otherwise. He left it to her vile cousin, Mr. Snyder. And he’s just kicked her out of the house.

Homeless, hurt, and confused, Silla gets taken in by her second-least-favorite relative, Gwendolyn Copperstone. Silla's life looks like one doomed to misery until she hears about [crime], and she has evidence that Mr. Snyder did it. Unfortunately, revealing this evidence would mean revealing a secret she'd rather keep hidden. So she decides to take the investigation into her own hands. If she can prove Mr. Snyder did it, he’ll go to jail, and she’ll have the estate that rightfully belongs to her.”

So, I have motive for my MC, but I have no idea what crime is to be committed, or what that secret of hers is. The plot bunny that was the original idea for this book was "Hey, if I stick Gwen, Silla, and Merig under the same roof, there will be fireworks, as they all don't like each other. Cool! Let's do it!" It's changed a bit since then, but that's still the gist of it. I also know that I want Lord Delstone, the "nomantic" interest from Noxumbra to be involved. There are things about him I'd like to reveal.  Other things I've been thinking about with this are story telling bits I'd like to try out. More red herrings, a villain you really wish had done it but didn't, perhaps some political intrigue. We'll see. If I'm pantsing, who knows what will happen. 

In celebration of the slightly-panicked, plotless state I'm in, I wrote a short parody to the first verse of For the First Time in Forever from Frozen. 

"My plot folder’s empty, this is bad. What will I do without a plan? Camp NaNo’s gonna start in two days. For years I’ve plotted out my books, figured out the characters, subplots, and hooks, but this year all I have are ideas vague. I won’t know what’s going to happen, it’ll be totally strange. I am so not ready for this change. ‘Cause for the first time in forever, I won’t have any plans. For the first time in forever, I’m gonna have to pants. Don’t know if I’m nervous or crazy, but I’m somewhere in that zone. ‘Cause for the first time in forever, I’ll have my wits alone."

Good luck to those of you doing Camp, or any other writing project. 

And with that, I bid you adieu. I'm off to try and figure out Book 2's plot a bit more. Kirk out.