Category: Writing

This year, I set out to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’m not a stranger to it. A few years ago, I even succeeded in writing a 50 thousand word novel in a month. It was utter crap, as NaNoWriMo projects often are.
And this year, I stopped after about 7 thousand words.
I think it was the right decision.
There are a number of reasons I do participate in NaNoWriMo:

• Establish A Routine. To achieve success, I need to write an average of 1667 words a day. One of the best ways to do that is to develop a habit for daily writing. Personally, I can draft about a thousand words an hour if I’m “in the zone,” so two hours a day is plenty for NaNoWriMo. Two hours a day is a lot, but it’s not out of the question if I prioritize it.
• Efficiency. 1667 words a day. That’s a lot. I need to draft without fear. The goal is solely to write the words. They don’t need to be good words, they just need to be words on paper, so to speak. I can fix them later. I like how C.J. Cherryh put it. “It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.”
• Accomplishment. Producing a complete draft of a novel is quite an accomplishment. It’s something one can be proud of. Producing even a chapter of a novel is an accomplishment. NaNoWriMo certainly gives me that feeling of accomplishment.
• Focus. I can’t write 1667 words a day if I spend my time on Facebook, Twitter, or dealing with life’s random interruptions. Writing at speed requires that I shut the door on those distractions and focus on the page in front of me. That’s a good habit, and it’s how I complete things.

So, why the hell did I quit?

NaNoWriMo kept me from writing.
I don’t need NaNoWriMo to motivate my regular writing habit. Or my focus. Or even my efficiency. I write every day. I’ve succeeded in writing every day for well over a year, with very few exceptions.
It’s an addiction. I need it to get through my week. Storytelling is my creative outlet, and I’m one of those crazy people that absolutely needs to create. I get depressed if I’m not able to do so.
I don’t need NaNoWriMo’s help to get me writing. I’m already doing it.
And I don’t need NaNoWriMo to give me a sense of accomplishment. I’ve written a 90k word urban fantasy that in the final stages of critique and revisions. I’m almost ready to send it out to agents and publishers.
I certainly feel accomplished. I wrote a book. That’s a big deal. I can confidently call myself a writer. And I hope to call myself a “published writer” at some point in the not too distant future (although publishing can move at glacial speeds.)
NaNoWriMo was getting in the way of that accomplishment. It was distracting me from the vital work of finishing up the critique work, of polishing, of preparing my book for submission. The work of writing was keeping me from the work of writing.
Heck, even writing this article is taking away valuable time from polishing my book. Best get back to it.

Been somewhat quiet this last month as I’ve been heads down in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month.  Why write blog posts, given a deadline of 50k words in a month on a single new story.

Well, I didn’t quite make it.  37,924 words.  Still, that 37,924 f*ing words.  Wow.  Towards the end, I was up to about 1100 words an hour or more.

I blame New Orleans.  I wasn’t 100% while there, as, well, it’s a bit distracting.  I also had a few short days, where I only wrote 1k words instead of the 1,667 I’d need to hit my goal.  Still, I’m amazed I was able to dump all of that out.

I’m liking my story though, and I’m gonna finish it.  The premise?
What happens when the 1% become obsolete.  When corporations no longer need fancy stock traders and executive decision makers.

This ain’t so unrealistic.  Watson, the IBM supercomputer that recently did quite well on Jeopardy, and is currently ‘going to business school’.  How long before every corporation is buying ‘Watsons’.  What happens when these computers are able to make better, quicker decisions than those business executives, wall street traders, and even lawyers and doctors.  Welcome to the other side of the tracks, former rich folk.

Anyway, as these machines are programmed for profit, they’re sociopathic.  These machines have decided that energy and automated manufacture of other machines are the keys to profit, and the human economy is no longer worthy of investment.  Tough luck for us humans, as we end up living off the the deteriorating world of the past.

Unrealistic?  Maybe not.

All of this happened without people really noticing.  Everyone assumes we slid into a bad depression.  The machines simply let us think that.

Until Stax, the protagonist, stumbles across some data proving  that humans no long hold the reins of the economy.  And, the ‘system,’ doesn’t want her to leak it out.  It’s kinda tough to get by when the global economic system has decided you’re a danger.

Anyway, I’ve probably another 10k lines before I wrap up the storyline, then I’ll go back and revise it, fleshing out some dialog and description (I was a bit terse in those areas).  With some additional plot elements, I should be able to pump it up to about 100k.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, ready to jump me and beat me into a pulp.  This’ll be my first time, and I’m gonna do my best.  It’ll be tough, as I’ll be vacationing in New Orleans for the first week.  I’m hoping that I can get an hour or two in per day when I’m there, perhaps when others are sleeping.
If not, well, I’ll have to catch up.

For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is all about writing 50k words in the month of November.  That comes out to be just under 1700 words per day, which is not out of the question.  I can dump that out in a few hours if I don’t let perfection get in the way.  I just have to write every day.

I’ll do some of the prep work beforehand.  For this, I’ll probably need to outline first, or at least write a synopsis.  That’ll give me a framework to work in.

So here’s the big question.  What’ll I write?

I’ve a few options I’ve been kicking around in my head.  The most obvious would be the next in the series that I’m working on now.  I’m not so sure about this, as there’s no way I’ll finish revising my WIP by November.  I think a break will do me good, as well.

Another would be a cyberpunk novel.  Cyberpunk kicks ass.  It has cyber, and who doesn’t like all that techie cyber computer stuff.  And it has punk.  Where could you go wrong with that.  The only problem with cyberpunk is, well, the ‘speculative’ part comes true before the darn books are published, so they become contemporary fiction or at least thrillers before you know it.

I certainly have qualifications with respect to cyberpunk.  I work in a virtual reality company for goodness sake.  I’ve built robots, done the computer security thing, all of that.  And, well, I hang out in creepy goth industrial clubs.

And yet another would be dystopian.  I could do the whole zombie apocalypse thing as I wrote about here, or I could take that, remove the zombies and replace them with some oppressive theocracy.

And yet another…I could do my whole Martian thing.  Good old fashioned sci-fi Martian colonization and politics.  You see, I’ve this Mars fetish.

Now, the obvious thing would be to mix all of this up into one project.  Thing is, you do too many things, you can’t necessarily do any one of them well.  Not that I’ll do any of this well, but I’d like a fighting chance.

So, what to write what to write what to write.