NaNoWriMo 2021 and Crushing Over My Book

Today is the day! As I'm writing this, I have successfully written over 50k words for my NaNoWriMo novel, Terrowins Promise!!

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Last year was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo and I can't help but laugh at how differently I approached this year and last.
For NaNo 2020 I wrote my novel When Magic Speaks and because it was my first NaNo attempt I planned out nearly every conversation, every interaction and every scene in the book. And in my regular writing fashion, a lot of elements at the end of the book were adlibbed. For this year's NaNo, I made a rough outline of scenes and plot points but 70-80% of the rest was improvised, including the entire ending of the book and a surprise character! I was much more relaxed this time around and much more confident in my winging-it-abilities. My writing and preparation style fluctuates with my stories and I kind of love it.

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My friend at the time asked me what my favourite story was that I'd ever written and I didn't need a lot of time to answer Terrowins Promise. I'm really proud of this story and I thought this would be the best place to voice that confidence. See because I worried that I wouldn't hit the 50k word mark and then I went to bed that night, dreamt and improvised the rest to get me to 51k words! I think that's why I love this story so much is because I even surprised myself along the way as I typed, adding elements I hadn't even thought of until I was sitting down and writing. 

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A Few Reasons Why I Love Terrowins Promise In No Particular Order:

1. It took place in my imaginary world that I created as a kid. Back then my imaginary world Hearthrin was created purely for the reason to create a fictional map but as I got older, my world became more of a recluse and then, my inspirational point for a lot of my fictional works. As Fairy said, this world has grown with me, and making my story take place here allowed me the creative freedom to world-build to my heart's desire. 
2. It demonstrates how far I've come along on my writing style journey. I've been writing stories on Wattpad since 2015 and since then, my writing style (I personally feel) has changed drastically and Terrowins Promise is my strongest example of my proudest work. 
3. I also love Terrowins Promise because it was inspired by so many different films and series that I adore. Shadow and Bone, Howl's Moving Castle, Tangled and Skyrim were the main inspirers.
4. It included all of my celebrity crushes as the face claims (minus Pedro Pascal). I believe that was one of the major reasons why I was so eager to write this story and introduce my main character to these dashing dudes. 

(Why do I feel like this post feels like an essay?)

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I planned for NaNo 2021 back in August because when the idea hit me, I was so excited to get started on writing it. I've never felt that kind of pride and excitement for one of my stories, ever. I got to build my story's playlist and build that anticipation and by the time November came around, I was itching to write. 

Admittedly, I'm really bummed that it's over already. But, I won't be sad for long because I'm already planning book #2...my first potential series?! We'll see~ I love this story, I love these characters and I love NaNoWriMo. I finally have a reason to adore November!