Sunday Slobber: My Mini-NaNo Experience aka Finishing My Dystopian

Welcome to another segment of Sunday Slobber....yes, I really had a segment called that, but it's just been a long time since I did one! lol

This is pupster, Duke, sacked out with exhaustion beside me on the couch. This is what I feel like today. Why? Well, because I just finished my YA Dystopian. *cue the Journey Don't Stop Believin'* Yes, I never saw myself writing a Dystopian...and when the idea for Testament came, I wrote about 6K of it and sent a synops to my agent. Even though she loved the concept, I never saw myself actually finishing it. But hey, guess what? I did!

In a way, I had my own mini-NaNO experience since I basically wrote 40K of the 60K this month. At times, I thought I would pull my hair out...others I marveled in the characters and world I was building. You know, that spark--that brief and always fleeting moment when you actually self-love, rather than self-loathe, your work? Yeah, I had it big time! And then it came time to write the end. As a total pantser, I don't use an outline or synops, and I never write it order. Well, this time I had a synops(which continously changed!), and I wrote it order. But truthfully, I think the ending was just because I was afriad of where and how to cut it off. That's never really happened to me before. Thankfully, my writer buddies and angels, Jamie and Hannah, helped me get through it and talked me down from the ledge.

So, since I really haven't talked about it on the blog, I thought I'd do a little quickie. Testament came to me last May/June. While trying to think of a way to hop on the Dystopian bandwagon(Hey, I'm being honest here!), an idea hit me with a mixture of the biblical stories of Esther and Joseph. I may post more of a summary later, but for right now, here's a little snip of the characters.

For my MC, Cadence O'Bryant, I see her as both of these versions of the lovely, Evan Rachel Wood. Why? Well, because during the course of the book she undergoes a transformation at the "pageant". She's typical teen, or typical Dystopian teen, lol, and then she's made to be something else. At her core, she is a fiery red-head. In fact, I had flashes of Maureen O'Hara in the Quiet Man when I was writing her. She loses control of her mouth on many, many occasions. There's a deeper and darker side to her since she's been through a lot of heartache and had to be strong.

If I had to have a favorite character besides my MC, it would be Malacky Greene. He's one of those characters who was never supposed to have a big story. He was simply Cadence's brother's best friend in one of the introductory scenes--and he kinda had some funny banter with her. And then suddenly, he was much, much more! He harboured a crush on Cadence and would do anything to keep her safe and happy. He's also a bit of a goofball, and he tries to hide behind his humor a lot. I seriously fell in love with him when I was writing! LOL Fortunately, he's 19 in the story, so it wasn't some pervy, underage thing! LOL

And then my cocky, but misunderstood, Cullen, which I'm sure I'll get grief for the name, but srsly, I didn't go for a Twilight knock-off. Most of the characters have names with Gaelic origins, and Cullen means "handsome" in Gaelic. I never really wanted to write a love triangle, and when Malacky wrote himself, so did the love triangle. Cullen's the rich son of the CEO who now rules the former America. While he's used to having his way, he also has a softer side, and one beta reader totally fell in love with him! LOL

And so Testament now goes off to agent reading land to see how it fares with her. *fingers crossed*