Countdown to November 1st and NaNoWriMo

This year marks my first time participating in NaNoWriMo and I can hardly wait. I have taken several Savvy Author Workshops in preparation for this momentous occasion.

I have relied upon the Snowflake Method to organize my planning efforts. It's been very helpful in allowing a central place to store all my notes on characters, settings, locations, and story events. Starting in November, I plan to use Scrivener to keep track of my writing. This way, I can jump around in the story and plan my writing based upon my mood. Even though I am a plotter, I know myself well enough to know that if I have to write the story linearly, I will get bogged down and my muse will stop cooperating. Ordinarily, this is not a bad thing but with only thirty days to complete 50k words I will not have that luxury to push aside the manuscript in favor of shiny new distractions.

Now, a few words on the results of my planning efforts;

The working title is Lady Harriette and the Dawn of Compassion. Notice I said working title. As much as I am excited by this title, I'm fairly certain that it will be changed.

If you have read To Have His Cake (and Eat It Too), you will recall not liking Lady Harriette Middleton very much, especially since her concluding thoughts on Darcy's marriage to Elizabeth were as follows;

Lady Harriette was beside herself with the news. Now that they were family, she felt that the elusive Mr. Darcy was firmly within her grasp. No matter, she thought, he is married, not dead. Of course, she would marry as well, undoubtedly to someone of high rank and birth. As regards Darcy, she would simply bide her time.

If you enjoyed To Have His Cake (and Eat It Too) and decided to read the sequel, What He Would Not Do, I wager you were fairly entertained by her ladyship. In Colonel Fitzwilliam, she found her soulmate. In Elizabeth, she found a dear friend and in Lady Catherine, she found her antagonist in chief.

Here's the story concept as hammered out during the NaNo Prep workshop;

The story is set in Regency era England. The heroine is a spoiled heiress who recently married the hero, a second son with a rakish, irresponsible past. The antagonist is the hero's aunt--a haughty aristocrat who hates and distrusts the heroine and is determined to see her fail and to expose her as wanton. The antagonist uses her influence with the elderly Earl (her brother) to her advantage in furthering her attempts to thwart the young couple at every turn.

Both the hero and his brother, the Viscount, are disappointments to their father, the Earl. When the Viscount suddenly dies, the Earl threatens unprecedented measures to prevent the hero from realizing his legacy unless his son can prove he is worthy. The heroine must help her husband realize his legacy as the future Earl and she must sacrifice the freedoms she believed were hers, upon entering the marriage, in preparation for her role as a future Countess.

This story offers lots of turmoil and strife for the newly married couple, Richard and Lady Harriette. His best friend, Mr. Darcy, and her dear friend, Elizabeth Darcy, will be by their sides throughout as they do battle with Lord Matlock and Lady Catherine. I can hardly wait to get started!