Hey guys! How is your NaNo prep coming along?

Now that November is almost upon us, I’m finally ready to talk more openly about what project I’ll be working on this year. I enjoyed writing ‘Vampires Vs. Dragons’ so much that I’ve decided I’m gonna do something in a similar vein. Not a direct sequel, but the post-apocalyptic landscape of ‘Vampires Vs. Dragons’ provided the best context for this new project, so I’ve decided to turn this into a post-apocalyptic shared universe with a variety of conflicts going on in different parts of the globe, and I’ve decided which conflict I’m going to focus on this year.

Orcs Vs. Wolves!

(Technically it’s orcs vs. werewolves, but that somehow didn’t have the same ring to it.) With this project I’ll be starting a theme of ‘something fantasy vs. something horror’ which, if I keep this going each year, would work out quite perfectly with timing since I tend to do most of my inspiration hunting during October, when all the scary movies are on. (Genius move, eh?)

It’s a decision that I was kinda leaning towards early on, since the idea of doing something post-apocalyptic with a heavy emphasis on goblins was something I’d had my heart set on ever since the first time I watched Mad Max: Fury Road. I know there are no goblins in that movie, but many of the villains, the way that they lived, and the way they improvised new tools out of the ruins of mankind gave me a hard goblin vibe, and really inspired me for this kind of a story.

And since ‘Vampires Vs. Dragons’ ended up being set in a post-apocalyptic environment, I realized I had given myself the perfect segway. I just needed the perfect opposing side for them to terrorize and/or be terrorized by depending on varying circumstances. Enter the werewolves!

To my surprise, it’s been much more difficult to find inspirational material for werewolves. I’ve noticed that most werewolf movies don’t really get into the psychological impact of a person beginning to think and act like a wolf – the werewolf tends to be treated as more of a generic monster transformation. So I’m gonna have to keep looking to find the kind of inspiration I’m hoping for when it comes to the werewolf side of the story. The orc side I’ve pretty much had covered for a while.

I’m even doing a Let’s Play of ‘Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor’ as a way of gathering further inspiration. I’m even talking about the world from a fantasy writer’s perspective as I play, and you can check it out on my YouTube channel!

My prep work is just about done. I’ve finally got my ‘Orcs Vs. Wolves’ Pinterest board published. I may add to that as I return for inspiration throughout the month, and when the book is published I’ll start categorizing the pins by character names as I did for my ‘Vampires Vs. Dragons’ Pinterest board.

How is your prep going? Are you excited, nervous, or all over the place? Let me know how it’s going in the comments!