Just Add Ninjas – A NaNo Tale
By Erin Danzer
I first found out about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) through a search for “writing contests” back in October of 2002. I was intrigued by NaNo and the possibility of writing an entire novel in just 30 days. So I signed up. And it changed my life.
Every November for the last 9 years, I allow myself to write a bunch of crap that I will one day call a novel. I have learned a lot over the years, tricks to word padding (getting your word count higher), what not to do (spend 11 days reading an amazing trilogy in the middle of the month) and have only “failed” NaNo once. I love November. It is my favorite month of the year.
An old adage I’ve heard over and over is that when your novel is stuck, just add ninjas. This year, I used that piece of advice. I finished my first NaNo novel in just 12 days, capping that one at 55,000 words. So I decided to write another novel. I went to the NaNo forums, searched through the Adoption Society pages and Dares threads, and came up with something that has turned into an adventure/fantasy novel, something I haven’t attempted to write in over 10 years. In the first chapter, I found myself feeling pretty bored and didn’t know how to spice it up. Then I remembered: Just Add Ninjas. So I did. And below is what I came up with. Ninjas won’t work for everyone, but they sure helped me!
The Adventures of Jolyn & Brynn