I may have decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year, but as fate would have it - brace yourselves - I've begun writing something anyway.
I only started seriously considering participating this year a week before it started. So I spent much of the last week of October planning. I had decided not to do an actual novel. I've been out of the writing habit so long this last year, that I really didn't think I was up for it. Instead, since there are no real rules to NaNoWriMo, other than don't start until November first and don't stop until you hit 50,000 words, I was thinking about just writing lots and lots of short stories instead.
So throughout the week, I started writing down ideas. Some were brand new. Some were old things that I'd been tinkering with in the back of my brain. Some weren't even fully-formed ideas, just images and thoughts to use as a springboard. I told myself that if I got a good number of ideas down, I would go ahead and do NaNoWriMo. If I came up with only twenty five ideas, that would come out to two thousand words each. And then at the end of the month, not only would I have joined and accomplished in the insane creative explosion that is NaNoWriMo, but I would potentially have twenty five (or so) stories' worth of raw material. That's a lot to work with, after a year of barely writing anything other than some very rough ideas and even rougher drafts. After all, you can edit anything but a blank page.
As the week went on, other things came up, and I didn't get down as many ideas as I'd hoped. Plus, the thoughts of all the stuff I'm up against, what with the move and everything, I had to admit this probably wasn't the year for it. And I was ok with that.
But those ideas were still simmering in my mind. And today I looked over my little list and started to see how similar in tone some of them were. And how this character felt like the beginnings of that one. And how several, if not all of my ideas, could conceivably fit together.
And suddenly I have the beginnings of what could potentially (possibly, maybe, don't say it too loud or you'll scare it away!) be a novel one day.
And I have the first four paragraphs written and the basic framework of an outline.
Wish me luck.
2 comments:
At least now you have some ideas stewing in the pot.
My sister and I decided to do our own version of NaNoWriMo, taking 2 instead of 1 month.
This is the first time that I even attempt to write a novel and I'm already behind schedule.
Don't worry too much about getting a little behind schedule. Writing a novel is a big thing, no matter how long you give yourself to do it.
Good luck! To you and your sister.
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