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

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

You're not nuts. I generally get my story ideas a week before NaNo, haha. This is the first time I have had had my idea so far in advance--and it's only because I'm using the failed novel from a previous NaNo, and just finishing that with 50k words. So I don't have to write out an outline! Yaaay!

And we know I didn't even write out an outline for last year's NaNo, and that went on to 75k and is still only the beginning of a potentially incredibly long story!

I think NaNo is a lot about going with your heart. So if you're heart is telling you go with this new merged story idea, and your mind is arguing against it with the good old Time Argument, boot out your head for a minute and go with your heart.

I think you'll appreciate NaNo a lot more that way. How long does it take you to write up outlines? Plus, more can be developed as you go along. As long as you have the beginning in your head you can start come November. Then you can outline it during the month!

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Nuts? I don't think so. Perhaps creative? I do think so. :)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheh :)
I'm going to spend today working on the outline to this other story. If it still feels appealing then I might hold over the one I've been working on for most of the year.

I am so slow that there is negligible chance that I'll be able to work on the outline as I write the story.

I've always wanted to be able to do what you did last year. I don't seem to be able to launch into a story with wild abandon... at least not yet. Maybe one day.

On the positive side, this new story has a rather neat plot. The one I'd intended to write was a journey story with not so much a plot as a series of compelling situations. That may be what is making me have second thoughts.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheheh :)
Thanks. I am very grateful.
I hope I can justify that feeling.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope your outline-writing goes well!

You are slow? At writing, or outlining, or both?

I'm sure you could launch a story with wild abandon - it's definitely about finding the right head space. Not a critical one, but one that is more in touch with the creative juices. A balance between a writer's trance in which one is all Creation and the writer's thoughts in which one is all hawk-eye and planning. Definitely the ability to get the creative juices out the fingers with a certain low degree of shaping with the mind. It was a wonderful experience for me! Completely different from what I'm used to. Even when I was a child writing novels, I used to have them all outlined in my mind or on paper.

I can't believe I've been writing all my life. It's pretty impressive to me. Some of my first memories with words are my writing stories - whether in my head, in hidden notebooks, or on laptops. (I've had computers all my life since my father is a software developer. I basically learned to spell on the computer.)

Oh, neat plots are the best! Especially for trying writing activities like NaNo. It's really something to pull you on and keep you compelled to write each day and in great quantities through a short time.

Sorry that I'm coming off so Old and Preachy - I know I would probably have the urge to resent that coming from someone younger than myself. Apologies if I have irked you with it at all!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheheh :)
I could never see you as preachy. I highly value your comments. Age means little to me. When I first encountered you I thought you were around my age. Subsequently realising how young you are gave me very high regard for your mind.

You're very lucky you've always written. I've always written too, but I'm convinced that one day I'll see your name up in lights.

Yep, I'm slow... at everything. Many people think I'm just being modest when I say that, but I've always been terribly slow at everything I do. I think it is because I obsessively work and re-work every aspect, while constantly drifting off at tangents, daydreaming and being distracted by the gazillion things I'm interested in. [sigh]

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Just do what you do and be what you be. You're a flower in the sun. :)

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Cheers for not being preachy! Smiles. I'm glad. Age means little to me as well, but I know it has great meaning for some others, so I like to keep aware of that. You thought I was your age? I'm so flattered and honored! I think you're the fourth person to mention that - I must really give off that feel! I am so pleased to hear it.

I don't think you'll see my nae up in lights, smiles. I don't plan to publish. At least, not fiction. I'm going into ecology so I'm sure I'll end up writing about that. I sometimes doubt the path I chose. Occasionally I feel I should have gone into English, for science scares me - but it thrills me at the same time! I just constantly feel I am never doing enough, not enough studying and reading and working. There's a limitless amount one can do while studying a science in school, so I always have a tinge of guilt when I draw the line somewhere. A lot of my friends in English and other subjects only have so much they can really do.

I must say I'm not slow. That's one thing I have realized through this NaNo WriMo process. If I put my mind / heart / creativity / whatever towards something, it takes a heck of a lot to tear me from it, and I can work darn quickly. I'm still shocked at how much I can write sometimes and the fact that I can write so much under pressure. I will admit to daydreaming and being distracted by all the things that interest me. Sometimes those ideas end up in my writing.

I do miss writing short stories and smaller pieces. I've been so focused on novels for the last while that I've missed out on smaller things.

[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!

[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'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!

[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!