I'm being asked to take part in this year's National Novel Writing Month this November, affectionately known as the NaNoWriMo (nah-no-wry-mo). It's basically writing a novel within the month of November and trying to hit the 50,000 word target by the end. You submit your 'mini novel' into the website and the counter accepts the word count and you have the personal pride of being able to write a novel in the space of thirty days. And prizes are apparently available. And despite the title being 'National' it is actually international and a bunch of London-bound NaNoWriMo-ers meet up for pub crawls during the contest.
Personally, I don't think I have the creative capacity to get 50,000 words down in thirty days. I can't even finish Fiona and that's only 18,000 done in the last two years. It was getting too predictable and I felt like a trashy romance novelist after writing my third sex scene in less than 10,000 words so just gave it up. It's currently sitting in my personal drive at work, something I occasionally look at fleetingly during lunch breaks.
My creative flair temporarily lost, I decided to try another novel, and came up with Samantha. It was based around my personal situation but I changed events to my advantage and made them more dramatic. In the end, it began to read like a sort of twisted version of my autobiography so I stopped that too.
I could try for NaNoWriMo I guess... I mean, there's no harm in at least signing up and having a go. All to gain, nothing to lose, and all that caper... It wouldn't even have to be a proper novel...
2 comments:
Hey... don't worry if you get stuck... there's always Plot Ninjas! And Plot Pirates!
In Nano it is perfectly acceptable to insert random plot devices if you get stuck... the favorites being ninjas and pirates.
Mine? Dragons.
It doesn't have to be good! 50k of drivel is acceptable. And you get all that pride in knowing you finished something! Which, I think, is pretty fan-freakn-tastic. Oh, and when you get stuck, i throw in a nazi with a pistol or psuedo-nazis. Jenny likes dragons, I go for nazis. Consider it this way, you get all the crap out and then all you are left with is pure literary gol, baby!
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