In a moment of weakness I let three different people talk me into the insanity that is NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. From the website: "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." The accounting gnome whispered in my ear, "That's only 1666 words a day. It takes you 1500 words to get warmed up on anything. Piece of cake."
The procrastination gnome rubbed his hands together and said, "Hey, some time away from The Fantasy Novel will do you good. Maybe you work on the SF Novel in your spare time too. Don't forget to surf the 'Net, lots of fun stuff out there. Oh, look, a bird! Maybe you should read up on birds, just in case. And research, don't forget to resear-- AIEEEEEEE."
(Blogger's note - It is with regret we announce the sudden vacation of the procrastination gnome. He had the uncontrollable urge to mail himself to Uzbekistan.)
The underpants gnome merely smiled. The sissypants gnome sat in the corner, beating his head against the wall and wailing, "What have you done? What have you done?!?"
50,000 words. 30 days. Is Captain Chaos up to the task? The gnomes are already taking bets. Will this coveted GnomeAward be won? -------------->
Stay tuned. It's going to be a Chaotic November.
Just the way I like it.
7 comments:
Actually, there is no racing. I've outlined the first 15 chapters, and the scenes in each chapter. Theoretically that is 50,000 words right there. Now, the trick is to just write, and not get fiddly with everything. I know where the story needs to go, I know the characters and setting, now I want to see if detailed outlining can really work. For me.
That and I'm insane. But you knew that.
*Whispers* C'mon, KC, join me on the dark side. We have cookies!
Have fun.
Why does the dark side always have cookies, and the Force never?
Because the Jedi are a bunch of stick-in-the-muds and don't eat chocolate chip cookies- or chocolate! Ascetic weenies.
No wonder people wanted the Jedi purged. :)
Oh! Scary business. Actually I have this (ahem) novel I really, really want to write. Maybe I could do NaNo, too. Am I that insane? Election Day is out. That will be 18+ hours of the usual pure pandemonium interspersed with hours of sheer unadulterated eating--oops, I mean boredom. That leaves 29 days. Well, except for maybe Thanksgiving. . . . Okay, 28 days. :) Maybe if I get up at 3 a.m. instead of 4? Duh. LOL Hey, even if I only get 25,000 words written, that's progress, isn't it? OUTLINE? Eek! No way. If I do this, it will be my usual voyage of exploration and discovery. :)
P.S. I hear Uzbekistan is nice this time of year. :) Tell him to stay there! LOL
Come on, Diana! You have nothing to lose but your marbles! It's not really about finishig a book, but about knocking out a first draft of a book. You're only competing against yourself.
So if your goal is to get 25000 words out of it- go for it. That's less than 1000 words a day. I write more than that on people's blogs. Hmm... ;P
Cheating? No way. Writing in advance is cheating. Outlining is almost a necessity. It's already paid off- rereading what I had outlined I got an ephiphany on a possible ending.
I have a 4200 word outline, and I used your synopsis method, KC, so don't complain. *g*
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