NaNoWriMo - thoughts

(I have just changed my Blogger name, because I felt like it. I'm Tangela-that-was)

Last night I was plagued by insomnia, and one of the things I ended up thinking about was, what am I going to do for NaNo this year? I've thought up and thorwn away several ideas over the past few months, but this time I think I know for sure. And when I checked the blog today and saw Mari's post (it's not that scary and it's really fun, you can do it!) I decided I'd make it blog-official so I don't flake out.

I'm going to have another go at writing the story of my oldest character. She's existed in my writerly brain for at least six years, probably longer, and I've tried to write her story four times during those six years. I never got past the first chapter, but re-reading the attempts - the first one was when I was just starting and I no longer have it, but I have the others - I think each is better than the last. So this time I'm going to start work on a proper novel plan with a decently fleshed-out plot, and write her story.

To be honest, I don't know much about her, even though she's been around so long. Her name is Indri, and she doesn't have a surname because she was abandoned as a baby. She's seventeen, and training to be a Protector, a sort of secret bodyguard for the great and the good. During her final practical exam, things get a bit...out of hand and it is discovered that she has strange powers that only a handful of people in the world possess. From there, it's a case of her learning to use and control these powers, coming to terms with how they affect her life, deciding what it would be best to use them for and trying to find out where they came from - who her parents are.

And that's it, really. I don't even know where her powers come from. Writing this all down properly and getting it exactly right is going to be very important for me, so I guess I'd better get planning!