WHY AM I SO INSANE
No, seriously. Let me tell you a story. I've been planning all along to write 100,000 words of novel this November. Actually, no, that's a lie. At first, I set my goal at 75,000 because I knew I would be having a busy semester, and I was prepared to dive in with no plot. Then, once my novel began to flesh itself out, I pushed my personal goal back up to 100,000.
But now, I'm beginning to think that 100k is too much for the story I want to tell and the mood I want to set. I mean, 100k words is a good-sized novel, but for lit fic (and an epistolary novel, at that) I get the feeling I would be forcing myself to add scene upon irrelevant scene just to fill up the book. So, I was thinking of lowering my goal back down to 75k. It's still a nice challenge, and I won't have to kill myself in between classes and papers and theses.
However! My story does not end there. The more I think about it, the more I really want to push myself. I can do 75k in a month, easy. Too easy. In addition, today I had the brilliant idea of expanding Aces Wild into a series of novels. Think of it like a TV show, and each book is a season. I want a show with four or five seasons. And each book will be around 75. Okay, I like where this is going.
WAIT NO I DON'T. Because then my brain decides to say, "Oh man, how cool would it be to knock out the first TWO BOOKS during NaNoWriMo?" And I just paused and said, "Brain why are you being so stupid?" and my brain replied, "No, seriously. You can write TWO 75,000-WORD NOVELS! It will be SO AMAZING!"
Except for the part where it won't. Now I'm having flashbacks to NaNo 2005, where I was ravished by an amazing plot bunny five days before NaNo began and was forced to write two 50k-word novels just because both stories were so amazing. Am I actually going to damage my sanity for the sake of getting two novels done instead of one? I DON'T KNOW.
Ugh. This is just a tentative goal, though. As I write my novel, I may realize, "Hey, I like where this is going. I can wring out 100,000 words, easy. I don't need another book to occupy me." Or, I could realize, "Hey, it's November 15 and I just finished a 75,000 word novel. LET'S DO ANOTHER ONE."
We'll see. For now, I will just continue to hate my brain. A lot.
But now, I'm beginning to think that 100k is too much for the story I want to tell and the mood I want to set. I mean, 100k words is a good-sized novel, but for lit fic (and an epistolary novel, at that) I get the feeling I would be forcing myself to add scene upon irrelevant scene just to fill up the book. So, I was thinking of lowering my goal back down to 75k. It's still a nice challenge, and I won't have to kill myself in between classes and papers and theses.
However! My story does not end there. The more I think about it, the more I really want to push myself. I can do 75k in a month, easy. Too easy. In addition, today I had the brilliant idea of expanding Aces Wild into a series of novels. Think of it like a TV show, and each book is a season. I want a show with four or five seasons. And each book will be around 75. Okay, I like where this is going.
WAIT NO I DON'T. Because then my brain decides to say, "Oh man, how cool would it be to knock out the first TWO BOOKS during NaNoWriMo?" And I just paused and said, "Brain why are you being so stupid?" and my brain replied, "No, seriously. You can write TWO 75,000-WORD NOVELS! It will be SO AMAZING!"
Except for the part where it won't. Now I'm having flashbacks to NaNo 2005, where I was ravished by an amazing plot bunny five days before NaNo began and was forced to write two 50k-word novels just because both stories were so amazing. Am I actually going to damage my sanity for the sake of getting two novels done instead of one? I DON'T KNOW.
Ugh. This is just a tentative goal, though. As I write my novel, I may realize, "Hey, I like where this is going. I can wring out 100,000 words, easy. I don't need another book to occupy me." Or, I could realize, "Hey, it's November 15 and I just finished a 75,000 word novel. LET'S DO ANOTHER ONE."
We'll see. For now, I will just continue to hate my brain. A lot.