NaNoWriMo

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...

Wikipedia

I'd just like to say that I completely love Wikipedia. You wouldn't find this in the Britannica (from the entry for Ironic (song))

"However, it can’t really be said that it is ironic that Morissette made an incorrect usage of the word ‘malapropism,’ (which is a different though similar sounding word of inappropriate meaning; Morissette’s ‘irony’ is simply used incorrectly) as it is merely yet another instance of Morissette using a word incorrectly. One might, however, perhaps refer to this incorrect usage of ‘malapropism’ as Morissettian irony. If a situation eventuated where a set of words, such as ‘ironic’ and ‘malapropism,’ required the qualification of being termed ‘Morissettian’ in order to attain an unambiguous meaning, neither would this be truly ironic (perhaps instead being best described as gratuitous); although once again one might rightfully refer to it as an example of ‘Morissettian irony’, producing a somewhat recursive end result."