Really interesting thing I found as a link in protoype 26.website, a web log, blog I should say, by a young artist / traveler / hanger outer / something. Cool site. She has a link to something called National Novel Writing Month., wherein a 50,000 novel is written in a month. That is right, in a month. That is right, a month. So I've got this thousand word a day thing that makes 30,000 words, and if I just poke it up to nearly 1,700 and voila! there it is, a 50,000 word novel. Is that a novella? Or is that a novelette? Or is a noveleenie? That is a word I heard somewhere to describe a super-short novel, probably not more than 20,000. I am going with novella, or maybe just novel. Novel is a good word. I have about 4 days to figure out whether to do this or not. It is really inrtiguing as a notion. The site at first glance looks, too, for a writing site. Something to seriously consider. And then a novel to seriously consider. Actually the site is not very serious which is the way to go. I am not a very serious writer, so maybe a tongue in cheek contest is the way to go. But I don’t even know if I want to put myself out as a writer at all, even a fake one. Not a fake writer, just an in the dark one. Heck I am even confused about whether I want this blog to be known to anyone. Carolyn See talks about the private world of the writer, and how nobody can get in and don’t expect anyone to like the fact that you are a writer. Pretty funny, actually. Pretty funny. I thought it was good advice, and advice that I intend to follow, and does this contest count as putting myself forward as a novelist. Or is my fear just fear of rejection or fear of ridicule. I would like it to be a complete secret that I have written and published and sold 4 million copies . . . LOL!
I am a big believer in coincidence (not in karma or God’s particular will or any other spiritual meaning in every single moment and decision and act that happens), so if it was a coincidence that I found prototype 26 and this contest idea, what is the big deal? If there was nothing cosmic, then why do it? But will I ever have such a good opportunity again to be forced to write. I don’t even know if I am interesting in this free writing, and had never done it until 5 days ago or whenever this blog started. Now I am considering committing to nearly 2,000 words a day . . . what has gotten into me? I am a nutcase, a nutball, one big ball of nuts. I am considering this? Me? Me? I am actually considering this? How can someone change completely in that short a time, or is this a change especially if I have dreamed of writing for such a long time. Is this a fulfillment of something instead of a change? Maybe. Another thing for me to think about. Yikes! I need one more thing to think about in my literary life? I am pretty good with deadlines, and I finished “Wanted” by the deadline I had set. More than a year before, I set a deadline for the end of the next year, and finished it on I believe December 27. So maybe with a 50,000 word deadline as of November 30, I actually have a chance. Hey, I am not visiting anyone for Thanksgiving, and no one is coming to visit me, either.
I do not want to do idea 2 or 3 as discussed previously. For one thing, I have bigger visions than just 50,000 words for those and the contest is not open for works in progress, but maybe one of the other rattling-around-my-head ideas could work. They are "Soulmates," which I intend to be an alternate POV novel that by its nature I already have pretty well outlined. Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy loses other girl, girl likes boy, blah blah blah. That is a possibility, as is "She was Coke and I was Pepsi," which despite the possible trademark issues of the title is supposed to be a light hearted post mortem of a failed relationship. I don't know if you can do funny in a month in a 50,000 word novel. Of course I don't even know if I can do funny at all, so . . . but if I only have a month maybe it is the time to try funny. No I just don’t think so.
I am leaning toward “Soulmates” because of the whole outline thing. That gives me 3, 4 days to think more aobut my characters, which of course I already have a pretty good idea of. The girl is one of my 10 most important people (under See’s idea) and the guy is me. That should not be hard. If we believe in writing what we know, or who we know, I know me and I know my life and my personality and my reactions, so maybe that is the way to go. I think in doing this I have narrowed my options to 2. One is to ignore this, or at least not do it, or at least not do it this year. The other is to spend a month writing a first draft of “Soulmates.” That’s it! That’s the list!
Well, this was not the thousand words I expected to write today, that is for darn sure. It was just a matter of checking for interesting blogs to link to for my other blog (the public one), and I hadn’t hit Prototype 26 for a while, so I figured . . . and then there is the link, and there you go. And here I am, five minutes later thinking. This has to take time in order to sink in and consider. Well . . . I will go consider.
I am a big believer in coincidence (not in karma or God’s particular will or any other spiritual meaning in every single moment and decision and act that happens), so if it was a coincidence that I found prototype 26 and this contest idea, what is the big deal? If there was nothing cosmic, then why do it? But will I ever have such a good opportunity again to be forced to write. I don’t even know if I am interesting in this free writing, and had never done it until 5 days ago or whenever this blog started. Now I am considering committing to nearly 2,000 words a day . . . what has gotten into me? I am a nutcase, a nutball, one big ball of nuts. I am considering this? Me? Me? I am actually considering this? How can someone change completely in that short a time, or is this a change especially if I have dreamed of writing for such a long time. Is this a fulfillment of something instead of a change? Maybe. Another thing for me to think about. Yikes! I need one more thing to think about in my literary life? I am pretty good with deadlines, and I finished “Wanted” by the deadline I had set. More than a year before, I set a deadline for the end of the next year, and finished it on I believe December 27. So maybe with a 50,000 word deadline as of November 30, I actually have a chance. Hey, I am not visiting anyone for Thanksgiving, and no one is coming to visit me, either.
I do not want to do idea 2 or 3 as discussed previously. For one thing, I have bigger visions than just 50,000 words for those and the contest is not open for works in progress, but maybe one of the other rattling-around-my-head ideas could work. They are "Soulmates," which I intend to be an alternate POV novel that by its nature I already have pretty well outlined. Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy loses other girl, girl likes boy, blah blah blah. That is a possibility, as is "She was Coke and I was Pepsi," which despite the possible trademark issues of the title is supposed to be a light hearted post mortem of a failed relationship. I don't know if you can do funny in a month in a 50,000 word novel. Of course I don't even know if I can do funny at all, so . . . but if I only have a month maybe it is the time to try funny. No I just don’t think so.
I am leaning toward “Soulmates” because of the whole outline thing. That gives me 3, 4 days to think more aobut my characters, which of course I already have a pretty good idea of. The girl is one of my 10 most important people (under See’s idea) and the guy is me. That should not be hard. If we believe in writing what we know, or who we know, I know me and I know my life and my personality and my reactions, so maybe that is the way to go. I think in doing this I have narrowed my options to 2. One is to ignore this, or at least not do it, or at least not do it this year. The other is to spend a month writing a first draft of “Soulmates.” That’s it! That’s the list!
Well, this was not the thousand words I expected to write today, that is for darn sure. It was just a matter of checking for interesting blogs to link to for my other blog (the public one), and I hadn’t hit Prototype 26 for a while, so I figured . . . and then there is the link, and there you go. And here I am, five minutes later thinking. This has to take time in order to sink in and consider. Well . . . I will go consider.
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