2023 will mark the 10th time I have participated in the main challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
The goal of the challenge is to write a 50,000 manuscript in a span of 30 days. The challenge runs November 1 through November 30.
As has been the case ever since I started participating in NaNoWriMo since 2017, I am writing a fanfiction story. And as has been the case in several recent years, the story will be a Stranger Things story. However, this one will be a little different.
I’m debating between the title of the story, but it’s either going to be called The Red, The White and The Blue or E. Pluribus Unum (Latin for “Out of many, one”). The story will center on the presidential campaigns of Karen Wheeler (mother of Mike, Nancy and Holly in the show), who starts the story serving as the Speaker of the House. When she announces her intention to run for President, Joyce Byers (played by the lovely Winona Ryder on the show), a longtime Congresswoman and the House Majority Leader, announces her intention to seek the Speakership should Karen win election to the presidency.
My 2023 NaNoWriMo project will focus on the presidential campaign of Karen Wheeler and, to a lesser extent, Joyce Byers’ campaign to be reelected to Congress and to succeed Karen as Speaker of the House should Karen win the presidency.
The story will center on the campaign to the presidency as well as Karen’s reelection (yeah, that’s a bit of a spoiler, but not really). It will laser focus on the kids on the two campaigns: Mike, Will, Nancy and El (Jonathan isn’t interested in politics and thus does not work on Joyce’s campaigns, but he will be present in the story). I won’t give too many details away, but the main point will be a tumultuous relationship between Mike and the news media that causes some tension and potential problems for the re-election campaign.
The story will feature the presidential campaign of Karen Wheeler, but it will largely be laser-focused on the children of Karen and Joyce, namely El Hopper, Nancy Wheeler, Will Byers and Mike Wheeler.
Karen will face off against Sam Owens in her first presidential campaign. During her reelection, she will face series villain Martin Brenner, who will serve as a formidable opponent against the Wheeler Campaign.
In her first presidential campaign, Karen will face off against Sam Owens in the general election.
This story is highly inspired by Casey McQuiston’s novel Red, White and Royal Blue. I love that story and the alternate universe it shows. I’m taking several of my favorite elements from that book and twisting them to fit this story. But much of this story is coming straight from my brain, with my own elements I’m planning.
In part two of the story, during Karen’s re-election, her opponent for the presidency will be Martin Brenner, a far more formidable opponent than Owens.
The story came to me so fully formed that as soon as I sat down to start writing out my ideas, I knew there were going to be ten chapters. I knew what the names of each chapter would be and the basic plot points of each chapter. Heck, I’m going to be so detailed in my planning of this story that I’m going to color electoral maps, showing which states Karen will win in the primaries and which ones she’ll win during her two general elections for the presidency.
I’ll be spending the next few weeks plotting out this story and getting ready for November. I’m so excited to write this story! Onward!
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