NaNoWriMo

[gothick]

Today is the first of November, and people across the world are starting their month-long commitment to NaNoWriMo, National Novel-Writing Month for those who didn't go through all the stress with me last year.

This year, I've decided not to take part. There's a few different reasons. Primarily it's because I don't have a clear idea for a novel at the moment, and I've not had enough time during October to try to figure one out. There's also the fact that doing it in November last year gave me nothing like enough time or energy to get anything at all sorted for Christmas.

So. It's a bit of a shame, but the next time I do a NaNo, I want to have the idea and plot mapped out nicely in advance, because I believe that's the key to getting a half-decent start of a novel out of the month.

What I will do this month, though, while all the energy and buzz is flying about from the people who are doing it, is give some serious thought to the theme and plot of whatever my next madcap attempt at doing this will be. I've got a week off to myself (for the purposes of recovery from hideous job) later this month, and I'll have a think about it then.

And of course, you don't have to do it in November. It gives you lots of company, and there's support from the website and the podcast and whatnot, but fundamentally, you can just pick a month and get going -- the important thing is the deadline. So I won't necessarily have to wait until next November if a good enough idea comes along...

Comments

[marklesuk.livejournal.com]

at the risk of missing the point completely - could you not use a well known plot -and then focus more completely on the style knowing where the plot was going.
as long as you stated that that was what you were going to be doing then I don't see how people could object. and I could go back to feeling jealous that you have the time to do these sorts of things - huh kids!?!?

see you later this month apparently

lil

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

What I discovered during last NaNo, and also on the novel-writing course I did this year, was that style really isn't much of a problem for me. Give me a scene and I'll write it, and people will generally like it. My real problem is plotting, and structure, and that's difficult for me to fix once I'm going.

If I hadn't already been committed to a paid writing job (which I think I'm narrowly going to squeak in for the deadline on Friday, just...) then I would probably have spent the last week desperately trying to come up with some characters and 20 plot points and a structure to follow, which I think would've given me a good stab at a successful NaNoWriMo this year, and also been some practice I desperately need.

As it is, I won't get any spare time to even think about it until Saturday, and there's also a chance that I could get some further work off the back of the first ten of these articles I'm writing, which would earn me a the same amount of money again, but would have to be done in November. Right now, getting my very first cheque for doing some writing and getting published in an actual paper book is a more important goal for me than NaNo.

What I might do is commit to coming up with a plot and some characters every month from now until next year, which will (a) give me plenty of the kind of practice I need, and (b) give me a massive advantage for next November...

Looking forward to seeing you! *hug*

[ahnlak.livejournal.com]

So when do we get to see the polished novel from last years NaNo? :)

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

If it could be fixed by polish, you'd probably have seen it already. Unfortunately it looks like it can only be fixed by taking it outside and shooting it. But it was a good learning experience, at least.

[ahnlak.livejournal.com]

No, I meant, please republish it in Polish :)

Ahem. You may be being too hard on yourself - I don't remember it being that unpolished in it's raw unedited form...

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

*slap*

Mmm, the problem is that while I can write good scenes, and there were a few of them in last year's effort, the whole thing was laughably incoherent, and really wasn't fixable without throwing a lot of stuff away. I'd plotted myself into a corner becuase I didn't have a clear view of where I was going; that's what I'll need before I do another NaNo.