Junowrimo 2016: A Peek Inside

2016 has been quite a writing year so far. I have been seeing more of an uptick in freelance writing jobs and my own writing has come up with various WIP ideas for me to explore. This June I decided to take part in both Bunowrimo and Junowrimo. But it is the latter I'm most intrigued with because I have started to work on my second MG novel. Yes the girl, ahem woman, who was terrified about starting one MG WIP has started a second. This one however holds a deeper meaning to me because it has taken a real life of it's own. Let me explain.

Before June I had bare bones of an idea:

A) Evil Santa Claus. Not Krampus but that Santa in my story was always evil.

B) A child is taken to a special school or place where select kids are trained to fight him.

C) The Boogeyman is actually a good guy and nightmares are used to frighten kids awake so Santa can't kidnap them.

D) No clue. There were lots of confusing holes.

Then June rolled around and to say things changed would be a kindness

A) Santa Claus is actually a monster who has long had naughty kids sacrificed to him. The Santa Claus idea was born of a desire to expand his enterprise and fool humans who did not make a deal with him. Those who did got a lifetime of good luck in exchange for one of their children after he or she turns twelve. These deals were mostly made before the child's even born.

B) The kid that was supposed to be my MC is actually killed. But wait...

C) Gnomes get in on the action somehow and Yetis and Big Foot gets a mention. WTF? I don't know.

D) Gnomes are the wooden vessels that are actually inhabited by horrible creatures that act as Santa's enforcers if deals are reneged and slaughters the entire family. Very kiddie huh?

Oh but we are not done yet.

E) A new MC comes out the ether and he turns out to be the gay valentine of the former MC who is still considered missing. Twelve is a magical age? What twelve? Where the hell is this book going? I did not put crushes in here?! What's going on? Why am I being told about exchanging chocolate and hand holding? What...where am I?

F) Yeah F is the right word because the story stopped being mine.

G) Acceptance that I'm doing a whole new story now.

H) The Boogeyman or Mr. Boogeyman was once a black man who was attacked and tortured to death for loving a white woman. Now he fights Santa Claus by swiping bodies of kids Santa kills and see if they have a leftover spark he can use to 'bring them back' as minions to fight the gnomes and help stop Santa.

I) Disaster ensues and new MC ends up in the clutches of the Boogeyman as a sort of servant as he tries to reconnect with a certain minion. Take a wild guess who.

So yeah I'm leaving it at that. The Nightmare Children is a bit of scary roller coaster. But I am also having fun. I never thought I would be writing horror for children.

Then again I was as a kid a huge R.L. Stine fan and still want to grab anything he writes. Can't say he was on my mind at the start of this but now I must say it's kind of cool saying I'm writing a horror book for kids. Also one with various characters of different races, sexualities and...species? So to sum up I'm excited about this book and will do my best to bring up the first 50,000 word draft by June 30.