Novel in a month

[Lieutenant Kije]

I'm going to produce a one month free write that attempts to cling to a plot.  What's it about?  Ask me on Saturday.  Ask me again on Sunday and you may get a different answer.

I'm a serious one-drafter, and can't imagine caring very much for anything that I haven't had the time to outline, and re-outline, and re-re-outline before I put words on paper in story form.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

I like to improv myself a lot. I find it really challenging and fun.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

well, I had a lot of sarcasm. I admit I'm approaching this with a lot of fear:
Fear of not accomplishing it
Fear of actually coming up with nothing worth considering further
And really, those two are enough fear for me.

Despite what I've said, I do realize that there is lots of good to come from it. But I've been struggling with what idea to use because I want to do something good, but I'm worried about sacrificing something I have a lot of attachment to. So I've been going through my idea file to find something I've come up with that has potential, but I don't love yet.

However, I feel most comfortable with my newest cohesive novel idea, which comes out of reading King Arthur Pendragon (the RPG) and the Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 350-950 (of which I really only read the first part, and nothing about Byzantium -- I should feel guilty about that, but I was just trying to learn about the far fringes and outside of Romano-Europe, and there was almost nothing about that in what I *did* read, so ....).

The setting is a fantasy empire, where the Emporer is a sort of King Arthur figure and establishes the Imperial Knights to correct injustices and enforce his progressive laws. The local kings and nobles don't go in for this chivalry smack and so there are lots of conflicts. The plot focuses on (a heretofore unnamed) peasant who troubles his lord and so gets sent to join the Knights to get him out of his lord's hair. He has a lot of personal issues and growing to do, yadda yadda. Low magic setting, but I came up with a lot of cohesive plot and conflict ideas, so it's shaping up fast. I like it a lot, and I'll be working on it starting saturday. It's also one that i don't have to re-write a chapter to claim I actually started in the allotted time period

Now I just want to get started. I'm very anxious to start.
I'll be working the surprise Entropy and I have planned in the mean time to kill the next two days.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

My thought (that I almost forgot) is that I've never really done anything that I think is on the level of this/publishable. So its really just a step in the right direction for me. And if Chemist can get things published about things that only make sense to them, then why, oh why wouldn't I. And so, rub-a-dub-dub thanks for the grub. Amen.

[stacer]

I heard of this for the first time last year, and it sounds like a great idea, but November is always such a busy time. This year it's school full time, work full time, two callings, a tutoring program through the ward, and being sick, all at once.   I wonder whether I'm going to make it through the week. And yet, I only have myself to blame.

I am a one-drafter when it comes to nonfiction (magazine articles, academic papers). I prefer not even to look at them again. But I don't outline, at least formally. I just ruminate for a long time, then it all comes out at once in the form I want it to, with few changes after it's done. Probably because I simply don't allow myself enough time. Like Tuesday, when I wrote my 3 pager in an hour, then printed it and headed out the door to turn it in during class. No time to proof.

But when it comes to fiction, I not only ruminate for quite a while (most of my ideas have been on the burner for 2 years or more, during which time I've been reading and traveling for research), but then go through multiple drafts. So maybe I'm a multi-drafter who needs a 10-year turnaround.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

well... it's like having children: There's never a good time
In December you've got Christmas.
January school starts again,
etc etc etc.
When ARE you going to do it? That's the whole point of NaNoWriMo. It's not for people like EUOL who already do it, it's for people like me who know we have the potential and WANT to do it but just haven't gotten it done.

So now we have a to get a draft done at a break neck pace, but it's done in a fun way with lots of support. Not for everyone, no, but a good way. I suppose if you were sadistic, though, you could do several novels-in-a-month each year.

I do multi-drafts. I just don't revise very well. "Blue" is my best story, I think, and it's gone through at least 3 or 4 drafts, and needs one more. I have five other stories written lately (the ones worth changing), and every time I go to revise, my mind blanks and I can't think how to improve it, even though I *know* some serious changes need to be made. I need an editor to point out every change so I can do it. Probably those other 4 stories will also get several more drafts.

[Fellfrosch]

I write papers the same way, Stacer: a one-day binge right before its due, with no planning or rewriting. With fiction I'm a freakish multi-drafter who makes it all up as I go, and then rewrites the ending six or seven times.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

So Fell, me and you, we've got a lot of commonality. Making it up as we go, waiting till the last minute with papers. Mmmm Mmmm mighty fine soup.

[EUOL]

Just a note--writing papers quickly then not caring about them does not make you a one-drafter.  The studies I've read (well, been forced to read) always mention that a good percentage of people have a tendancy to think that they're one-drafters because they put papers off until the last moment, then don't bother to revise.  This, however, is a completly different thing.  Your true nature comes out when you write something that's important to you, something you want to make the best you can.  In a one-drafter, the extra time and love manifests itself before the draft is begun, and in a multi-drafter it manifests during the drafting process.

Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck.  Don't know if I'll be in touch these next few days--will depend on the internet situation at the hotel, and whether or not I'm willing to pay for it.

[Mistress of Darkness]

I agree with stacer on non-fic pieces. But non-fic pieces are shorter than novels and so I can fit the whole thing in my head. My problem is that I am a perfectionist. Or, in other words, I'm a multi-drafter who wishes she was a one-drafter (you #*$!@ people). So I tend to revise and go over one scene so often that I drain all ability to continue. This will be very good for me.

And, like Kije, I will try to stay toward some kind of plot, though it does help that I have a solid ending in mind. That should get me through a few sets of 6.5 pages.

I have a question. Can we just use Word's word count to see how far we've gone? Or is there some other method that should be used?

[Mistress of Darkness]

And, oh, I know everyone's going to be very busy in November with this project, so could we look into that upload place now? That is, if anyone else is interested.

[Lieutenant Kije]

Oh, I think you shouldn't wish you were anything other than you are, MoD.  If you were a one-drafter you be frustrated that it took you so @#&*%! long to get any words on papers at all.  And disheartened at the apathy that ensues when projects get put off for too long.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

for word count: whatever way. Word's feature is easiest. NaNoWriMo has a word count feature, but it's not a rule enforcement policy, and I imagine it woks almost the same as Word.

Another way is to write in 12pt Courier New double spaced. That gives you 250 words per page (roughly). A 50,000 word novel would take up 200 pages in this format. But if you don't like looking at it, periodic checking of the word count feature is a better option.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

So, is anyone else going ot post their idea? Or where their free-writing will start?

[Mistress of Darkness]

Page count would work for me except that heavy dialogue sections (I tend to write a lot of those) would probably throw me off. I'd hate to think I'd finished the assignment and then find out on Dec 1st that I was 1,000 words short.