7° Of National Novel Writing Month

7 ° OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH A couple weeks in the past I blogged about deadlines, or my lack thereof, and mentioned that as a method to achieve a deadline, and if all went well, a finished novel, I was going to be collaborating in this 12 months’s National Novel Writing Month. Well, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, began yesterday, and so did I. The objective of this system is to finish a 50,000 word novel in the thirty days between November 1st and November thirtieth of each yr. That means to stay on track you must write 1666.666 (etc.) phrases each day. The NaNoWriMo organizers properly rounded that up to 1667, I went a step further and set my very own objective at 1700â€"that’s the kind of super over-achiever I am, what can I say? Now, to be sincere, I’ve actually never been a kind of writers who sits down at the similar time daily, writes for the same size of time, and comes out with the same variety of phrases. I may have (too many) days where I write nothing at all, and (too few ) days the place I’ve written upwards of eleven,000 words. Mostly I’m somewhere in between, however for me an excellent writing day is about 2000 phrases in an hour or two. For the report, I’m not pleased with that. Though I honestly don’t think any writer can give you 11,000 good phrases every single day with out pause, I think any writer can give you higher-than-zero words every single day, and 2000 words isn’t actually that a lot. That was my considering once I jumped into the NaNoWriMo pool. Yesterday I had some household points to attend to, errands and other stuff, and some inconsequential excuses, and HBO put more old episodes of The Sopranos up on On Demand, the bastards. And starting a e-book is more durable that writing the middle of it, so I ended up with simply north of seven-hundred words. On today’s to do listing is that this merchandise: > Write NaNoWriMo, a minimum of 2700 at present! But, y’know, I’m scripting this, a recruiter is supposed to name me later, I even have some stuff to put in writing for Steamconâ€"oh, yeah, I’m going to Steamcon November here in Seattle and might be sitting in on two panel discussions, giving a Q&A for aspiring writers, studying a short story, and signing books, so please be a part of meâ€"I actually have to enter my Q3 royalty statement into my spreadsheet, that web site isn’t going to build itself, I must put some effort into an anthology I’m making an attempt to put together . . . I’ll attempt, individuals. I promise. And here are my broader goals for the month: At the top of November I may have an entire (a minimum of) 50,000 word tough draft of a novel. I will then spend a number of months turning it into a first draft. If I still like it after that process, I will attempt to get it printed. These aren't terribly lofty goals, really. This is something a writer can do. If at the end of November I actually have failed to complete an (a minimum of) 50,000 word tough draft of a novel pri ce revising into a novel price sharing doesn’t mean you possibly can’t. It just means I didn’t. And whereas I’m at it. Here’s slightly bit about my NaNoWriMo guide: The title is: 7 °. I’ve been mulling over this idea for a very very long time. It’s a fantasy novel with some SF elements, set on a tidally locked planet (one facet at all times faces the solar). The human inhabitants lives alongside the “twilight band,” the area between the too-scorching solar side and the too-chilly dark facet. They are in possession of a mix of magic and expertise and are currently engaged in a major project, sponsored by a collection of countries, to construct a ring of magical teleportation portals circling the planet alongside the twilight band. An unexplained peculiarity of the magic forces them to construct physical gateways every 7 ° across the planet’s circumference. Expeditions run by way of a sequence of portals till they get to the last one then have to cross 500 or so mi les overland until they get to the exact spot, 7 ° later, where they build the subsequent gate. Since a lot of the planet is still unexplored, we comply with our intrepid expedition throughout 500+ miles of uncharted jungle on a do-or-die mission to set up the following portal. The portals back are closed to them until they arrange and activate the next oneâ€"this prevents monsters, hostile natives, etc. from having the ability to flood back via the portal system to the “civilized” areas and trigger botherâ€"if the next portal is established, the intervening house must be secure enough no less than to maneuver on. That’s the essential SF/F conceit of the guide, and the story comes out of the risks and surprises encountered by the expedition making an attempt to cross the jungle and arrange their portal. I’m also taking this chance to strive something I’ve always been drawn to however never attempted: an epistolary novel. An epistolary novel is a novel made up of letters, d iary entries, and different discrete bits of information, somewhat than as a strict first or third particular person narrative. If you’ve ever learn Bram Stoker’s Dracula, you’ve read one, and there are others. And hopefully, on December 1, 2010, there will be one more. Wish me luck! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans