Philotic Web

I'm planning to do this again this year. I finished in 04, and even did NaNoEdMo in March of 05, but by November of 05 we were in this horrible home renovation crunch.

A couple days ago I had the idea that I wanted to try and fix up my 2004 novel during October. But we'll see.

I was going to do it last year, but November happened to be the month that we were doing finals in school... However, this year I'm going to do some serious writing, though not a novel, but a feature length screenplay. I'm excited.

Salaam

I did it last year (Daffodil Lane). I did it the year before (Haunted House). I did it the year before that (Adeth Wanderer) and the year before that even (Kaiawatepo).

I even FINISHED all of those years. As to whether I'll be doing it a month from now ... I really don't know. Probably.

I guess the boards ought to be back up soon, huh?

A helpful link for those as ignorant as I.

God, I don't know. I really want to try it... I did it in 03 and 05 (can't remember if I did it in 04), but I didn't win either time.

To save me the hassle of going to the link, can someone tell me what winning means?

It means you succeeded in writing a 50,000 word novel in one month. I have yet to do this. And as much as it would be neat to try this year, I'm not sure that my schedule will allow it.

Edit: was it 50,000 or 10,000? For some reason I can't remember. Probably because I've never won.

50,000.

The novel also cannot be a completion of something you started before November 1, whether or not you write 50,000 words of it. You can do planning, etc, before November, but you cannot actually write any of it.

I've started NaNo three times now and completely failed on each attempt.

I tried to participate last year. I was on a roll for the first week, looked like I was going to reach the goal in about two thirds of the time required. Then I had a bad case of writer's block for the whole second week. By the third week, I had gotten through my writer's block (as in I knew what happened next) but I realized my novel sucked and I didn't want to write it anymore.

This year I want to participate again. I have the coolest idea in the world for a novel. Problem is I have no plot. No idea whatsoever how to develop the idea into actual words. So I don't know if I'll participate. I'll see if I unblock.

I think a burning desire really helps to see it through. I framed my "winner" certificate from '04 and kept it by my desk for a long time. There are ways to cheat, just like anything in life.

The hardest (and scariest!) part is figuring out just how much of an idea you need to make it through the words.

This year I want to participate again. I have the coolest idea in the world for a novel. Problem is I have no plot. No idea whatsoever how to develop the idea into actual words. So I don't know if I'll participate. I'll see if I unblock.

Gagh! That's my unending problem!

I don't have a plot. I don't. Not ever. I have vague ideas and much prefer to leave large spaces of time unaccounted for so the reader can just kind of... fill in the holes.

The thing is, I don't have a plot because I generally prefer short stories. Which have miniplots. Sometimes. Although mine end up being too existential for that the vast majority of the time.

It's all very depressing.

I could probably write something purely and completely fantastical as a novel, but it would just be an overdone theme that I don't write all that well. And I've edited way too much to really want to try my hand at writing something I don't have at least a little experience with. In my experience, if you don't do extensive research and world-building, it comes out contrived and completely unrealistic.

I don't have the attention span to do that right now.

So maybe I'll just do short stories.

I have this idea that I'm really meant to be somebody's muse. I always have these brilliant ideas (thank you, thank you) which I am never able to subsequently develop. Maybe I should start saving them and selling them to writers with writer's block. Yeah...

I'd kind of like to try this year, but I get the feeling that it would be academic suicide. We will see how I'm doing come November.

I'll TRY, but with school, basketball and my band, it might not work out. Although, I've had an idea in my head for the past couple months, hoping to eventually start it up, this might be the perfect time.