Wednesday, October 19, 2005

"Accept the challenge...

...so that you may experience the exhilaration of victory!"

I don't if that little aphorism is from a notable source. I saw it on a plaque that a former boss of mine had in his office. Well, at least he didn't have one of those posters with a cat dangling from a branch featuring the infamous "Hang In There" slogan.

The challenge I am referring to in this post is that issued by National Novel Writing Month. Participants are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30. The object is quantity over quality.

I thought this would be good for me because, while I am making SOME headway in my fiction writing, I know that I need to get over my tendency to niggle over every little thing, and focus on opening the conduit between my brain and the page. NaNoWriMo sounds like just the ticket to blow that conduit wide open. Or burn it up entirely.

Luckily, I'll have a LITTLE time to figure out what I want to write about -- will it be science fiction, fantasy, reality-based fiction or perhaps even autobiographical? The only real necessity is that the theme must be able to support an output of approximately 1700 words a day. For 30 days straight. So it may end up being a combination of all of those things.

If I succeed, I will post the results on my site somewhere. But I would not expect ANYONE to read it!

6 comments:

argotnaut said...

Yay! Hooray! I was sorely tempted to do this myself, but I _know_ I already have enough to do. Now I can enjoy it vicariously.

Andrew said...

Sure, you say NOW you can enjoy it. Wait until about November 10, and you'll be able to experience the frustration directly!

Anonymous said...

Description and action scenes take a lot of words. I give you a quote from one of my fave authors (you get to guess):
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, papitating, and even gruesome, may make a godd tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.

liz said...

Naturally I have wanted to do this, too.

But for now: ultrea!

Anonymous said...

Devon said:
Marty is working on the third draft of his book, "Cosmic Funk," this summer and fall at his cabin. The book is about his adventures hitchhiking across the country and living on the hippie commune in the 1970s. He's also doing a magazine piece about an aging hippie coming back to his cabin (which he built in 1971) to live after 30 years. That story should appear in December in a magazine published in Salida, Colorado. At the moment, he plans to stay in his cabin until around Christmas. He's stocked up on food and wood -- essentials in his current very rustic environment (no running water or indoor plumbing). The solar panels on the roof provide electricity to run the laptop and some lights. At 11,000 feet in the central Colorado mountains the winters can be brutal.

liz said...

So... I never did hear back about whether Someone had an updated address on their Amazon wish list...