MIGHTY PEN: Katelyn Shacklock

Another first-time NaNo winner! We are so excited to so many of your crushing your goals and doing hard work.

Follow Katelyn Shacklock on NaNoWriMo and Twitter for some fun adventures!

You won’t want to miss Katelyn’s advice and awesome excerpt.

What made you want to join the Mighty Pens this year?

I have had an idea for a story for ~6 years now, and I just needed some accountability. I tried doing NaNoWriMo before, when I first had the idea and I made it maybe 25k words before just working on the project sporadically since then. But I think this story could be really good, I just need to actually focus on it, and that’s what the Mighty Pens helped me do!

What was a frustrating part of NaNo/the Mighty Pens this year? What was rewarding?

I don’t think there was anything frustrating actually. I felt much more confident in my story this time, which is essentially a re-write of what I had before. Turns out you forget things working on something only occasionally over six years… So sitting down, writing every day, and actually getting something that makes more sense was super amazing and rewarding. I am super pumped and proud of myself right now.

What’s currently your favorite part of your NaNo project? 

Hmmm… I was pretty excited with the last few words I wrote. I was finally able to introduce some lore and a prophecy to the story. It actually finally gave me a tentative title. This story has been completely untitled for 6 years! I even called it “Untitled: The Re-Write” for NaNo this year…

Here’s a small excerpt from what I did tonight:

There is a prophecy about you. It is rumored that The Goddess herself made it when she learned of Queen Lareia’s treachery. The gifts were not hers to give and The Goddess punished her for it, then disappeared.

“Are you going to tell me the prophecy?” Ali asked, not sure if she wanted to know.

What advice would you give yourself for NaNoWriMo/the Mighty Pens 2021?

More prep! I mean, I am mostly a pantser and not a planner, but knowing my characters better makes it easier for me to write, so I can at least prepare by getting to know my characters before November! Also, maybe I should start planning now…