NaNoWriMo jitters

[miriam_e]

NaNoWriMo begins in 2 weeks. For the last several months I've been assembling notes for the story I wanted to write this year. But I'm having serious second thoughts. Quite by accident I came up with another, completely different idea some months ago and it has been running around in my head a lot lately. Tonight I suddenly realised that it could be merged with another, much older story idea to make a pretty good tale... if handled well.

I start thinking this with only 2 weeks to go???? Am I nuts?!

But it is a rather neat idea...

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Science is incredibly important, but without people who can also communicate that to the wider public it is almost wasted effort. Your writing can be a great asset to your science hopes.

Yes, I'd just about give anything to be able to immerse myself the way you do.

Short pieces are definitely a different artform. I'd never realised it before I tried NaNoWriMo.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping my helping will help me in that way. Still nerve-wrecking for me! If only I weren't so afraid of being evaluated in general - grades and all that.

I wish I were more able to immerse myself in things while here. I'm sure I'll figure things out.

I love short pieces. I do so miss them! They are definitely very different. To me it's like the difference between a comic and a mural - just so completely different!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Maybe a short story fest could be set up -- like the short story version of NaNoWriMo. ScriptFrenzy, a comic event, and other such things have already sprung up.

Hmmm...

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a four short stories in a month event? Spending a week on each short story doesn't seem too bad. The way to monitor it I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure I would want a word count to reach.

But getting one short story a week for a month sounds pretty good to me. I know I can get really ambitious sometimes and have a few done a week. Actually I tend to write them in a day but then spend time revising them. Sometimes I write them over long periods. It depends!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... interesting.

I agree that a short story a week would be a good target. I like your point about no word count. Perhaps people could sign on for as many stories as they feel capable of.

Like you, I tend to write a short story in a sitting, then revise it over the next day or two.

I might look into organising something like that next year (as if I don't have enough ambitions). April might be a good month. Could call it April Fools. :)

...at the risk of clashing with Melbourne's Comedy Festival each April, where fools stream into Melbourne from all over the planet for a month of insanity. It seems to be as big as the Edinburgh Comedy Festival (30 July - 25 August), which you'll be able to see now you're in UK.
http://www.edcomfest.com

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

People signing on for as many stories as they feel capable of is a good idea!

April Fools. Giggles. I like it!

I hadn't heard of Melbourne's Comedy Festival. Edinburgh Comedy Festival I have. Hope I get to go some day!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Oops! Just remembered: Script Frenzy runs during April. Similar deal as NaNoWriMo (and I think originated by the same people). Write a 100 page script in 30 days. You can write screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, comic book and graphic novel scripts, adaptations of novels, or any other type of script. One of the rules is that you "must, at some point, have ridiculous amounts of fun". :)

Hmmm... I might try that next year...

Perhaps some other time period for short story writers. :)

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Wow. Perhaps I should do Script Frenzy sometime and do a script for an actual comic type thing.

Yes, yes on all that you wrote!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheheh :)
That sounds great! I hope to draw some comics next year. And I will do ScriptFrenzy in 2009. Scripts are a quite different artform from novel- or shortstory-writing.

I started getting great floods of ideas today, like making a non-profit site that hosts stories for writers, and which enables donations to be made to authors whose stories people like. I have recently been thinking about the problems faced by writers nowadays. Something like this would eliminate the middlemen. A donation would go directly to the author. The website would not take a cut. If someone wanted to donate to the website separately then that would be okay too, but not required.

I've also been thinking a lot about the practicalities of indexing stuff and have come up with some innovative ideas for that.

Exciting!

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I've never done a script, well, not in years and years and years, but I think it would be fun. I'm sure I'd figure out my own way to do it.

Your ideas sound great! I'm afraid of the publishing process anyway. But it doesn't matter since I don't have any plans of publishing. So everything works out!

Yes, very exciting!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering why my mind is all a-ferment with ideas. I just realised: it is because I have my weekly dose of medication tonight for this stupid infection. Damn! I'll stop being able to think clearly for another few days. Damn! Damn!

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry! That sounds terrible! What's the infection, again? I feel you've already told me but my memory is always so horrible!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It is not really much hassle. :) I just miss my normal state of mind bubbling constantly with ideas.

Hepatitis C. I don't think I've mentioned details before. I contracted it in my foolish youth when I experimented with various drugs. HepC produces some tiredness, but its real danger is in risk of liver cancer -- not a nice way to die. The medication to get rid of the damn virus is very tiring, but should leave me clear of the little monsters middle of next year. I should then have more energy than I've had in years.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I hope it works! That sounds terrible. I'm going to give your youth self a hug in my mind, anyway, as well as your present state. Smiles. Hugs to go around!