It's that time of the year again....
NANOWRIMO!
:D.
So, I've kind of failed horribly all three years I've tried it (and especially last year. Ouch.), but I am going to try, try again and hopefully actually get stuff done this year :D.
Originally, I had a couple plot ideas- all things I'd had niggling in the back of my mind for a while- and I'd thought, since I'm always trying to figure out how much outlining works for me, that I'd outline them to varying degrees and see what worked...but in retrospect, that's probably a bad idea, so I'm going to try to stick with one. And, to up my chances of actually winning this year, I've whittled my choices down to two:
1. A YAL novel about a kid from Monterrey (N.L., Mexico, not Cali) whose dad dies, and who has zany adventures while dealing with it. I've had this one in my brain for a while/have bits of it written here and there, and I want to get it done. The good thing is that each chapter is mostly going to be a self-contained short story, a la Tequila Worm (but, otherwise, not at all like The Tequila Worm, thank god, not that there's anything wrong with The Tequila Worm). The not-so-good part is that it's probably going to be around 60K, which is obviously more than Nano, and which I worry might discourage me mid-Nano.
2. Three GLBT novelettes, the first two of which are sort of connected by the third. Basically, they're about
A. John and Jeff, a long-term couple in modern-day London, who take in Jeff's nephew when his dad is hit by a car and ends up in a coma; much of it revolves around the decision to take the nephew's dad off life support. Also, they love football and cook a lot. This is obviously completely unrelated to that Lewis/Graves + Pettyfer dream I recently had.
B. In the 1960s/70s, Shona, an English professor, and Elsie, a novelist, go to an academic conference at the beach, partly as a romantic vacation, and are enjoying it until Elsie begins to fall for a free spirit that runs an antique store, and, obviously, issues arise.
C. Set a few years after the first one, Jeff's nephew meets Elsie's great-niece not long after he's dumped after his girlfriend finds out he's bi, and he and Elsie's great-niece become friends of a sort and stuff, all in one afternoon at a cocktail party. IDK.
The good part of doing 2. is that, much like 1, since it's three novelettes, I'd actually be finishing things as I go along, and I'm much better with short-term than long-term goals. Not-so-good is that it's three novelettes, and it's partly based on a fairly ridiculous dream I had while on allergy medication it could come out very cliched and icky if I did it wrong.
I'm kind of leaning towards option 2 at the moment, but I'm not sure. At least I got it down to two from five- though the others were pretty cool ideas, if I do say so myself.
What do you all think?
And, lol, I think this is the first time I'm seriously going to try to write something that's not fantasy, sci-fi, or fic :P. Never thought I'd see the day.
:D.
So, I've kind of failed horribly all three years I've tried it (and especially last year. Ouch.), but I am going to try, try again and hopefully actually get stuff done this year :D.
Originally, I had a couple plot ideas- all things I'd had niggling in the back of my mind for a while- and I'd thought, since I'm always trying to figure out how much outlining works for me, that I'd outline them to varying degrees and see what worked...but in retrospect, that's probably a bad idea, so I'm going to try to stick with one. And, to up my chances of actually winning this year, I've whittled my choices down to two:
1. A YAL novel about a kid from Monterrey (N.L., Mexico, not Cali) whose dad dies, and who has zany adventures while dealing with it. I've had this one in my brain for a while/have bits of it written here and there, and I want to get it done. The good thing is that each chapter is mostly going to be a self-contained short story, a la Tequila Worm (but, otherwise, not at all like The Tequila Worm, thank god, not that there's anything wrong with The Tequila Worm). The not-so-good part is that it's probably going to be around 60K, which is obviously more than Nano, and which I worry might discourage me mid-Nano.
2. Three GLBT novelettes, the first two of which are sort of connected by the third. Basically, they're about
A. John and Jeff, a long-term couple in modern-day London, who take in Jeff's nephew when his dad is hit by a car and ends up in a coma; much of it revolves around the decision to take the nephew's dad off life support. Also, they love football and cook a lot. This is obviously completely unrelated to that Lewis/Graves + Pettyfer dream I recently had.
B. In the 1960s/70s, Shona, an English professor, and Elsie, a novelist, go to an academic conference at the beach, partly as a romantic vacation, and are enjoying it until Elsie begins to fall for a free spirit that runs an antique store, and, obviously, issues arise.
C. Set a few years after the first one, Jeff's nephew meets Elsie's great-niece not long after he's dumped after his girlfriend finds out he's bi, and he and Elsie's great-niece become friends of a sort and stuff, all in one afternoon at a cocktail party. IDK.
The good part of doing 2. is that, much like 1, since it's three novelettes, I'd actually be finishing things as I go along, and I'm much better with short-term than long-term goals. Not-so-good is that it's three novelettes, and it's partly based on a fairly ridiculous dream I had while on allergy medication it could come out very cliched and icky if I did it wrong.
I'm kind of leaning towards option 2 at the moment, but I'm not sure. At least I got it down to two from five- though the others were pretty cool ideas, if I do say so myself.
What do you all think?
And, lol, I think this is the first time I'm seriously going to try to write something that's not fantasy, sci-fi, or fic :P. Never thought I'd see the day.