Harry Potter and the Novel of Startling Innocuousness
So, I've decided to get in on the University of Alberta chapter of National Novel Writing Month. As the name implies, joining in on this requires the contestant to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Generally it's undertaken in November (in observance of the poor weather and general winter melancholy for the Northern Hemisphere), but the U of A chapter has, for peculiar reasons, decided upon June as the month of joy and creativity pain and suffering.
I'm not entirely sure why I've chosen to enlist, other than a lack of anything else to do and a slow desire to write something more than 500 words for the first time in two years in preparation for (hopefully) going back to uni next year. Anyways, I may add some more critical reasoning for my enlistment in due course - as, according to previously successful contestants ("winners" from here on) one key ingredient to completion is guilt and the absolutely unwavering knowledge that writing a novel in a month is nothing short of critical to your life and well-being; something sadly missing from my reasons for enrolling at the moment.
As for plot, characters, setting and other things essential to novel-writing, I currently have very little. Everything I think of writing revolves around doing Harry Potter, but with dinosaurs. That, or the Da Vinci Code with dinosaurs. Neither of which seem all that tangible (in lieu of the task ahead). If anyone has any ideas, they'd be most welcome :). And of course, if you'd like to join me in this insanity, you're a) quite odd and b) my new best friend.
Perhaps I'll use this blog to update rabid followers of my dismal failure to get past the title page, I am undecided as yet.
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along with keeping us updated, you could give us tantalizing excerpts every other day or so. :o)
well... you know you can join. It's not necessary to have a plot - if you just come across a setting, and make up some excuse to have a large host of characters, you can use anything you can think of. It only haxs to be 50,000 words, it doesn't have to be 50,000 good words :)
I don't think i'll be able to keep you updated with excerpts as that would require me to write something each day :)
really, all i need to do is set out to write some emails, cuz i can't seem to stop those once i get started. they're always embarrassingly long.
i just gotta get a gimmick. (that's a reference to a song from a musical, fwiw. Gypsy, to be exact. because i knew that was the next obvious question.)
I haven't really given it much thought...I'm not sure why. I'm not a fantastic writer, but it sure would be fun to actually write the thing. Good luck with your novel!
thanks! That novel sounds great, a lot more high-brow than my current plans! I'd love to read it if you ever get finished. I would say you should do the nanowrimo with it and try to get the first draft done, but everyone i've spoken to strongly advises against bringing work-in-progress stories to the challenge because you'll end up caring about the quality of the end result, which can seriously hamper your productivity!
Having said that, I'd heartily recommend joining in with a new story, as it'll get your creative juices flowing! That and reduce you to a wreck of jangling nerves...
I'm not sure what to write about yet, i think i might just get some funky names, assign them to various characters and start out writing a day in the life style thing about the ones with the coolest names and see where i end up.