slipjig3: (writing)
slipjig3 ([personal profile] slipjig3) wrote2007-09-26 10:19 am

There's an evil flesh-eating beastie looming ahead, and he has a RED PENCIL

Although official signup isn't for another week, it looks like I've committed my brain to NaNoWriMo this year.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get out of it.

The trouble is, the damned book really and truly wants to be written now, and given the amount of useless downtime at work with nothing even remotely better to do, I don't have much excuse not to do this thing. Plus, I've crossed two hurdles that pretty much guarantee this is going to happen one way or the other:

1) I have a title that I'm happy with. (The Noise of Endless Wars, from a Milton quote, if you must know.)

2) Someone asked me what the book was going to be about, and I told them.

Plus, the pieces are starting to fit together in my head, kinda. I've been working the grimoire (my NaNo brainstorming and organizational notebook) for about a month now, and I'm beginning to see the path of the story, not that the path is anything startlingly original or anything. I just wish new plot elements would stop popping up in my head and lingering: "Hi! I'm going to be a character in your book! No, you don't have a choice! And don't ask me how I'm supposed to fit, either. That's your problem, Writer Boy."

Also, since (a) this is my first attempt at genre fiction, and (b) I will commit hari kiri if it turns into cliché-ridden codswallop, I'm walking a bit of a thin line. It doesn't help that my protagonist already told me her name—Tala Kiernan—in no uncertain terms, which means I'm going to be fending off Mercedes Lackey comparisons in my head for an entire friggin' month. Luckily, I've already determined both that the story will take place in contemporary America and that Tala is the sort to use the word "fuck" a lot in casual conversation, so hopefully I can maintain the edge.

The other problem? I'm getting the sinking feeling that this story won't fit in a single 50,000 word novel. In other words, trilogy in progress. Sigh. [livejournal.com profile] issendai doesn't call October "NaNoOhShitMo" for nothing.

IMHO

[identity profile] rubian77.livejournal.com 2007-09-26 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Screw NaNoWriMo and just write the damn thing! It's not like you get a trophy or monetary prize for doing it all in November, it's just a catchy little gimmick to help people get started who otherwise wouldn't.

What I'm saying is: don't let NaNoWriMo dictate when you write. Let it flow through you, free of the confines of time and deadlines.

Re: IMHO

[identity profile] slipjig.livejournal.com 2007-09-28 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
NaNo doesn't dictate when I write; it dictates whether or not I'll finish the damn thing. See recent entry to that effect.

Re: IMHO

[identity profile] rubian77.livejournal.com 2007-09-28 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
As you wish -- I don't know if your "writerbrain" works this way, but for me, if I wait I lose momentum. The more I wait when the idea is fresh in my mind, the more I lose and it disappears completely in a matter of days. Poof, gone. I would just hate to see that happen to you.

Who says the month has to be November? Yeah, I know, they do, but you could theoretically make your month October instead....

Keep us posted either way.