Friday, October 5, 2012

The Unveiling of My Long Awaited (?) Novella Title

At about age 11 I wanted to be called J. J. Flynn. But sadly that wasn’t going to happen. Yeah my real first name is Jennifer but I have no middle name. There was this alleged fight between my parents over it being either Dorothy or Joy. You can guess by the initials I chose which I would’ve preferred but because they couldn’t agree I got a whole lotta’ nothin’.

Gipped!

Then this novella I’m working on started taking shape and so did my main male character (MMC). His name is JJ Anderson and no matter how much I’ve tried to convince myself I could take J. J. Flynn as my penname and change the first name of my character there’s just no chance that’s going to happen. He is a JJ. Not that I know any…well other than him.

And I guess he only partially counts since I brought him to life.

Anyway, I’m sticking with Jenn Flynn-Shon for this one. And probably the rest because I’m intending to turn not only JJ but also my MFC, Shaw McLeary, into a series-worthy couple of characters. Who knows how many I’ll write. I guess I’ll find out if I can be a “pantser” and come up with at least one full novel next month.

Because I’m planning to do NaNo. Yup that’s right. With little regard for my own mental health or the apparent safety of others (read: Matt) I’ve decided to live inside the mind of this character for another month straight. And write 50,000 more words of her story in 30 days. Of course in the end I’ll be with all these characters for a lot longer than a month. And longer than just one novel.

And that’s fine. Shaw is a pretty cool chick and I think her Nancy Drew-esque curiosity for solving mysteries or puzzles is directly tied to her being a YA fiction novelist. Write what you know right? So yeah we’re both Writers and we both live in Phoenix. Of course Shaw and I have plenty of stuff in common but there are also WIDE differences in the overall make up of who we are.

Which is good because, you know, this is fiction and writing myself exactly who I really am into a fiction story is just kind of creepy.

So without further ado, because I’m looking at the clock and realizing I need to get my ass in gear here and start editing today, the title!

Reckless Abandon

I’ve registered the domain at http://reckless-abandon.com but there’s nothing over there right now. Once I have cover art and all that hooptie-ha I’ll get something simple up over there.

What do you think? Based on the synopsis and everything else do you like the title? I’m really enjoying it and think it’s pretty fitting for many plot/sub-plot lines in the novella. So far it’s shaping up to be around 32,000 words. But that means I have to finish and release it. Something I hope to accomplish by the end of the month. And then NaNo.

Someone take my temperature, something tells me I’ve gone crazy.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Great title!

Almost Precious said...

Totally like your title and the story synops. Looks like you're on your way to writing another winner.

No middle inital isn't all that bad. My parents named me Anna Maria (Anna after my mother's mother and Maria after her favorite sister) and my middle name is Della (after my father's mother). I dropped the Della ages and ages ago and just use Maria as my middle name - maybe it's not legal and I'm breaking the law but doubt that anyone is going to arrest me. :D

Almost Precious said...

inital = initial

Launna said...

I love the new title, I think it is very appropriate.

A little story about middle names, my baby sister Lisa was supposed to have the middle name Renee.... my father didn't like it, wouldn't put it on the birth certificate... she ended up with Lisa only as a name. She named her daughter Renee and both of her children have 3 names plus their last name:)

Melissa Macdonald said...

Sounds saucy!

Anonymous said...

Very cool title! Can't wait to read all about Shaw and JJ and everyone else! You've ben quite the workaholic lately and I've been a lazy sack of shit...which I have to snap out of, like, now. One of my friends is asking for some chapters so that (along with my mock cast) should help motivate me. And If that doesn't work I'll just visit one of your 37 blogs and remind myself that you wrote and created Reckless Abandon in less time than it takes me to write one chapter!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Sue :-)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks so much Anna!

Yeah pretty unlikely you're getting in trouble for choosing your own name lol. Love it :-)

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks so much Launna!

I guess it isn't just me then huh? Maybe I'll name a character Joy or Dorothy!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Melissa!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

I'm really trying to approach Writing as my job so from 9-5 (roughly) every M-F I'm trying to do something having to do with that career (blog, edit, network, etc.). It feels like its taking forever to me of course, I just want it done! Hey you're raising kids, don't be so hard on yourself man. And come on be fair...I only have 30 blogs lol

Thanks my friend!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks so much Mum :-)

Anonymous said...

I do like!
Wishing you the very best Jenn.