For National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which begins today and runs through November 30, I am attempting to write my first Young Adult (YA) novel. The write-a-novel-in-a-month competition labels all those who get to 50,000 words in thirty days WINNERS.
I am challenging myself to write for a fifteen-year-old audience. Will be thinking of those thousands of students I worked with every day for fifteen years. Going to keep one student in particular in mind.
My words come, or seem to come, more authentically when I visualize just one reader turning my book's pages. For my domestic fiction, I aim to please Anne Tyler. For my YA, I aim to please the most creative and intelligent student I've ever had, a young lady named Taylor Welch. She is now a sophomore in high school, maybe a junior (I've lost track). I know for certain that Taylor's future is a bright one.
My novel's working title: Little White Pill
Its first paragraph:
My name is Chloe, with a C, like the perfume, not spelled with a K, like Khloe of Kardashian fame. My family isn't Money. Not New Money, not Old Money. More like Just Enough Money to keep our lights turned on and hot water for the shower. There is something really wrong with me, and once I get to know you better, I am going to tell you. But for now, you're going to have to wait.
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