Aurora Dimitre's Books and Rambling

So I'm a true crime fan. This is nothing new; I think half of my posts this summer were about the Last Podcast on the Left, a horror/true crime podcast. And as someone who likes true crime, I do like learning about a lot of cases, a lot of atrocities, a lot of terrible shit that happened. It's a kind of morbid fascination, and let me tell you, a little creepy to pull out this info at the supper table, but, eh. But only a couple of cases have really gotten to me. I mean, all of them have gotten to me in the sense that I am horrified by them, but I'm talking, did further research on my own, watched documentaries, maybe wrote something based on it? Basically they (and i'm not saying this is healthy, it probably isn't) consume me for a little bit. Especially if I end up writing something either based on it or inspired by it. The first case that did this was Columbine. This one actually got me before I started listening to LPOTL (their Columbine episode isn't act...

So, I've been pretty set on doing a sequel to an already existing project for NaNo. That's what I figured I'd be doing. And it might still be what I'm doing. I mean, I don't know--for the past four years of NaNo, I've just kind of waited until I woke up on November 1st and decided then. I haven't 'created' the novel until the first, even if I had a rough idea of what I was going to do and what I was excited for. Last month, there was an idea that captured me and I was like, hm, maybe I'll do that instead of this companion/sequel. But I talked to one of my critique partners and she talked me down and it was fine. But then I got another idea just a few days ago, based on some stuff I've been listening to podcasts about/watching documentaries about/being temped to purchase books about, and it's honestly a lot to put it off. I feel like next year will be the year of true crime-y first drafts, because I've got about three ideas sitting...

November's next week already, I guess, and that means it's time for NaNoWriMo . I've been doing NaNo for years, this will be my seventh, and I would never even consider missing my one non-guilty first draft of the year. It's maybe dumb to feel guilty about writing first drafts, but if left unchecked, I will spew out a million thirty thousand word tiny little novel-like beasts, so a little bit of guilt is probably good here, because without it I would never rewrite or revise anything. This year's NaNo, for me, is a companion/sequel to something I wrote a couple of years ago and is probably the best thing I've ever written. There is no demand for this sequel; the first book hasn't been agented or anything (I'm even taking a break on querying because I think the first chapter needs to be rewritten, and I'll look at it again post-NaNo), but I like to have at least a first draft of every book that could possibly come out of a story written as soon as ...