Revisiting the Results of My FIRST NaNoWriMo Challenge
Would you like to see the book I completed with the help of my novel writing guide?
Any aspiring author who is serious about writing their first book has probably heard all about National Novel Writing Month.
The information I’ve shared in my step-by-step guide is truly valuable, whether you choose to join the annual challenge or not.
Maybe you simply want some useful book writing tips. My guide can help motivate you to get started, keep going, and successfully complete your first manuscript.
As a way of showing and not just telling, I decided to provide you with a glimpse into my past experience when I first participated in NaNoWriMo. What you are about to view below, are details related to my first NaNo novel, titled: “Skipping Childhood”.
I wrote this book when I was primarily using my “Charm Baker” pen name, and Justiss Goode was just a glimmer in my eye.
Since that first year when I participated in 2016, I’ve also participated two additional times, resulting in another novel, and also a fantasy novella.
Although much has happened since my original aspirations to become a successful author, the success part of things is still pending.
I’m currently happy with the kind of writing on Medium that I perform on a daily basis, but I can’t deny that it feels good to revisit the results of my first novel writing month challenge. The experience has definitely helped me to grow as a writer.
My first ever book trailer that my son created for me
Please take a moment to enjoy this short book trailer that my adult son created for my novel.
He is also the talented designer who created all 3 of my book covers. The photo for the cover of this one was actually taken at a neighborhood park.
Writing my coming-of-age novel was a challenge
My first year of participation in the National Novel Writing Month challenge was exciting, but difficult.
The book I chose to write was in many ways, based on my own life, so writing it was cathartic, but also very hard to do.
Having so many negative memories and emotions to pull from was the easy part. Staying focused on the task at hand, and struggling to stick to my original plot was the hardest part.
The story is about an abused child who ends up killing someone by mistake, but later decides that murder is a good way to eliminate future problems.
The story revolves around main character: Deandra Baxter.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
Deandra Baxter has lived through a roller coaster life of ups and downs by the time she reaches age 12. While the book provides a well-rounded background of her and her mother’s life leading up to age 12, it is at that age that the story begins to really take a dark turn.
Deandra is forced to endure the consequences of her drug addicted mother’s bad choices; choices that lead to an opportunist with predatory motives to try and steal Deandra’s innocence.
Fans of serial killer stories know that they are generally older than 18 years old and serial killers are more often white than black. Typically, women are less prone to be serial killers than men. But Deandra Baxter is a rare breed of serial killer. In Skipping Childhood, there emerges; a young black female serial killer who starts killing at the tender age of twelve.
BOOK EXCERPT:
Sure enough, later on that night Julie started getting ready so she could sneak out of the tent. Deandra prayed she wouldn’t try to convince her to go along. She didn’t want her to go alone, but she had no intentions of going with her. Why would she? She wasn’t prepared to indulge in anything they’d be doing, not the drinking, not the getting high, and certainly not the getting felt up. She felt relieved when Julie left, after assuring Deandra that she would be alright.
“Don’t worry little sis. I’ll be back long before morning. Chow baby.”
She blew Deandra a kiss and left, not even bothering to invite her along. Julie seemed so confident and in control, it put Deandra’s mind at ease. Julie was older than her and clearly more experienced. Deandra knew she had to accept that her foster sister was doing exactly what she wanted to do and she couldn’t stop her if she tried. She finally dropped off to sleep comforted by this fact. But she didn’t sleep for long.
She woke up and had to go to the bathroom but Julie wasn’t back yet. Deandra tried to wait and hold it in, but after another fifteen or twenty minutes she forced herself to get up. She’d been sleeping in a pair of Levis and a black sweatshirt. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleepwear, but it made her feel safer out in the woods than wearing pajamas. She reached around for the cheap pair of tennis shoes that Dorothy had bought her from Thrifty’s. After feeling around and locating her little camping survival pack, Deandra left the tent to go urinate.
When Deandra crawled out of the tent, she had no idea that Mr. Walker had been sitting in the Dodge, smoking a cigar. His wife couldn’t stand the smell of them so he usually stepped out to smoke. Plus the closed quarters inside the RV was starting to feel a little cramped to him. So while the others were all inside the Winnebago sleep, he smoked his cigar and was preparing to sleep in his car tonight. Then, he saw Deandra come out of her tent and walk over to the bushes. That’s when he stubbed out his cigar and got out to follow her.
Deandra was more concerned about straying too far away than she was about anyone following her. The woodsy area seemed really intimidating at night in the dark. But she had no intentions on crawling over the adults in the RV to go use the bathroom. She got near the vicinity of where she thought her and Julie had been going to urinate. She thought she heard leaves rustling, but she convinced herself she was being silly. She continued peeing but she tried to make it quick so she could hurry and get out of there. By the time Deandra had pulled her underwear and pants up, she was certain that someone else was nearby in the brush.
“Who is-“
She stopped talking. She had started to ask who was there, but she suddenly smelled the odor of the funky cigars Mr. Walker liked to smoke. Deandra was still and she heard his footsteps creeping closer. Her flight instincts kicked in and she started running, but not towards the camp. That was the direction he was coming from, so she ran another way. After a few moments she stopped to listen. Instead of him turning and going back to camp, she could tell that he was still pursuing her.
Her heart was pounding and she could literally taste the adrenaline in her mouth. She ran a little ways more and paused to try and determine how close he was. The woods were quiet except for the crickets and other little sounds of nature, but she knew he was still out there. She suddenly got an idea, but she was too afraid to put it into motion. She wanted to turn her flashlight on and take a quick peek at the compass in her pack, but fear wouldn’t let her. Her idea was to lead him to the ravine that she discovered the other day, only she wasn’t sure she could find her way in the dark.
When Deandra heard his footsteps again, they sounded like he might be headed back to the campsite. But then they stopped and suddenly he seemed even closer. She could hear him panting and out of breath, but he was still intent on pursuing her. Deandra started counting in her head, and on “three” she started running again and this time he was on her heels. He must have realized they were too far for anyone to hear them because he started calling out to her in a low whispery voice.
“It’s just me, Mr. Walker sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t want you to get lost.”
From the sounds of things, he had a nice lie already made up as his excuse for chasing her down in the woods.
“Come out. Uncle Johnny won’t hurt you.”
If he was trying to coax her out, he was definitely saying the wrong thing. Deandra’s body froze up at the words “Uncle Johnny” and she had instant déjà vu.
You ain’t none of my damn uncle you creep.
She wanted to yell the words at him but she stayed silent. She knew he probably assumed if he could just catch her alone, he could have his way with her and she would never say anything to anyone. That was how predators like him got away with their crimes. Deandra hated herself for reacting exactly like the monsters knew she would. Mr. Walker was right; she probably would never tell, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make him sorry for what he was trying to do. But she was all turned around in the woods and not certain exactly where she was.
They were both stumbling through the brush now, and Deandra had started crying, not out of fear, out of frustration. She knew the ravine had to be somewhere around there and if they didn’t hurry and get to it, he was going to have her trapped. Just as she was thinking about trying to turn back and maneuver her way around Mr. Walker, she sensed that she was nearing the area where she recently lost her footing. She was able to recognize the slight incline that the ground was taking, only because she knew what to watch out for now.
Deandra came to a stop and crouched down in the brush. She felt around on the ground and picked up the largest rock she could find. She tossed it in the direction she’d been running in, and heard it land somewhere in the vicinity of the ravine. Mr. Walker emerged from the trees and went running in the direction he heard the sound come from. For some reason, even at the momentum he was going, he was able to stop in time, just as he reached the incline. Without wasting a moment, Deandra sprung from where she was crouched down. She used both her hands and gave him a big push, then listened as he tumbled to the bottom of the ravine. He fell so fast, you could barely hear his screams before his body landed with a crunch. If his neck and spine didn’t break on the tumble down, they definitely broke when he landed on the rocks.
Before carefully making her way to the edge so she could see down the ravine, she felt around on the ground. She found a stick strong enough to lean on so she wouldn’t lose her footing and end up falling down the hill herself. She flashed the light down on the rocks. She could see that in spite of the serious fall he had just taken, Mr. Walker was still alive. There was just the slightest movement below.
Her first instinct was to throw a rock down the ravine and try to hit him in the head. Now that she had already tried to kill him, she had to make sure that she actually finished the job. But she also had to be smart. She couldn’t afford to do anything that might make it look like this wasn’t an accident. She moved the light around and could see how twisted and contorted his body looked lying on the rocks. His mouth was filling with blood from the internal injuries. Deandra could detect a faint gurgling sound. It was obvious that he was close to death, even though there was still the slightest movement. She decided to do nothing. Instead, she waited in the dark for close to an hour, making certain that the movement and gurgling had stopped.
Being convinced that he was finally dead; she got up and started making her way back to the campsite.
Occasionally, she’d shine her little flashlight on the ground, just to make sure her shoes weren’t leaving any prints. They weren’t. They made only the slightest indentation and there were too many leaves and other types of debris on the ground to even tell. She walked carefully and methodically so she wouldn’t stumble, get injured or tear any clothing. Instead of thinking about the dead man lying at the bottom of the hill, she was more concerned about not leaving a trace of evidence.
As she trudged through the woods, for a second Deandra thought about Mr. Ben, the one who had started it all. She couldn’t believe she’d only been twelve years old when she killed him. That was just a kid, just like the “bad seed”. She wondered if she was messed up like Rhoda, the little girl she’d seen in the movie. She knew she should feel bad; remorseful or something. But she didn’t feel bad, she felt good. Powerful. She decided that no matter what happens tomorrow, the feeling she had at that moment made it all worthwhile.
When she got back to the tent, Julie’s sleeping bag was still empty. Deandra crawled into her own sleeping bag and waited for morning. She imagined they would probably come and take her to jail. The next day, Julie was magically back in her sleeping bag right beside Deandra. She hadn’t even heard the girl sneak back in during the wee hours. As for the police, they never came, at least not for Deandra.
They found Mr. Walker later the next morning. After discovering the body on the bottom of the ravine, suspects were the last thing they were interested in. Those types of camping accidents happened all the time. Mr. Walker’s death was swiftly investigated, if you could call it that, and just as quickly ruled as an accident. After all, he was an older man that was out of shape, out of his element, and roaming around in the dark. When they interviewed the other adults, they were informed that the group had been drinking earlier. So they suspected that Mr. Walker was also probably drunk, or tipsy at the very least.
The police reported that his neck and spine were broken but surprisingly, those weren’t the injuries he died from. He reportedly died as a result of his internal injuries that were not attended to. When his wife heard this particular piece of news, she cried for not being there to help him.
“If only we had found him sooner. I just hate to think of him lying out there all night dying, alone, while we were all sleeping comfortably.”
She continued crying and wiped her eyes with an already soggy Kleenex. As the Calloways tried to comfort the woman, Deandra almost felt sorry for her. If she hadn’t seen with her own eyes the way Mrs. Walker treated her husband, even Deandra would have believed the act she was putting on. For a moment she wondered if maybe the woman really did love her husband. Deandra felt bad at the thought, considering how hard it had been for her to lose Eric when he died. But then she thought about what a pervert Mr. Walker had been and what he had tried to do to her. Deandra convinced herself that Mrs. Walker was better off without her pig of a husband, whether she loved him for real or not.
It wasn’t surprising when the police ruled Johnny Walker’s death as an accident. They had no reason whatsoever to suspect foul play. As far as they could tell, it was just a family getaway gone bad. They explained it in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
“Unfortunately, accidents like this happen all the time. People always get disoriented out here in the dark at night. Believe me; it’s easier than you think to lose your way. “
A second investigator chimed in and added to the same line of thought.
“Yeah, he probably had to relieve himself and only planned to step a few feet away from the campsite. But before you know it, he was all turned around and further away than he meant to be.”
No one could deny that the explanation the authorities gave made a lot of sense. Johnny Walker’s death brought a quick end to the camping trip. Julie hated having to leave the new boyfriend that she’d spent all night with. With all the excitement, she didn’t even get a chance to tell Deandra about her night until they were home and unpacked. When they all headed for home, everyone was in low spirits; everyone that is, except for Deandra. She never felt better.
This book is currently on sale at AMAZON, and you’re welcome to purchase the Kindle version for $2.99.
Thanks for reading. I’m pleased to share my fiction writing with all of you. But did you know that I currently have:
😄 MORE than 450 stories published 😄 Follow on TWITTER: @GoodeWriter Read my: short form stories in the DAILY JUSTISS publication 😄
Not a Medium Member yet? Join now with my referral link: https://justissgoode.medium.com/membership and I’ll earn a small monetary reward plus I can also HELP YOU GET STARTED EARNING! 😄