Sundays in Bed With...Nano

Today was Daylight Savings Time and I spent my extra hour: SLEEPING!!! and it was glorious!

In other news I have started my 2013 NaNoWriMo! I had a great start on Day 1 but yesterday I had to work and ended up babysitting my niece Isabelle and was way too tired to do anything after that. So now I am about 1000 words behind.

I know I have all day to write today but I also have to study study study for my Spanish test on Tuesday! I got a B last time and now I desperately want an A!

Back to my NaNo project...

My biggest challenge so far has been naming my main character. I usually love boy names for girls so I will give names like Dylan or Jordan to my main protagonists. However this year, I'm totally stumped!

Here is the dilemma:

My main protagonists needs to be an every day girl-next-door kind of character. And I want a name that is very unassuming.

I don't want too strong a name, but I don't want a weak name.

I don't want a common name, but I don't want a name that is too unusual.

And I don't want a name that everyone will have some preconceived idea of who that person is.

For example: I could easily assume that a girl named Dylan listens to classic rock music. Emma and Beth listen to pop and mainstream music. And a character named Kate would obviously listen to thrasher heavy metal!

What is funny is the only name I can think of that sounds perfect is...Courtney.

I mean think of it! Courtney is a name that everybody knows but it isn't too common. I looked on quite a few different Top Baby Names lists and Courtney wasn't on a single one!

And it is not a name that when you hear you automatically assume anything about it.

So what's the problem???

Oh, yeah, it's my name! No wonder I love it so much!

My other challenge this year is that for the first time I am taking part in NaNo as a pantser! For those who don't know "pantser" is the term for people who are flying by the seat of their pants instead of planning out what they are going to write. This is very tricky for me because I am normally a planner when it comes to EVERYTHING!!!

I've written a couple of scenes so far and one of the tricks I'm doing is that any time I write something that is specific to my characters I write it on a postcard and tape it to my closet door. So far I've given each of the main characters a specific color and then anything written in black is just basic plot points and then I'm just kind of going from there.

Right now this is what my door looks like but I'm hoping that by the time the month is over it will be far more colorful!

Anyway, if you are taking part in NaNo this year I hope all is going well and I can't wait to hear about how your progress is going! And for everyone else I hope you have a great Sunday!