Novel!
I recently was reading about NaNoWriMo and I think it sounds really cool. I picked up the founder's book about how to write a novel in 30 days. Next month I expect I'll be unemployed for at least most of the month and it would be a great time for me to engage in something like this. I'm a very lucid dreamer and I've been keeping logs of dreams with potentially good story lines. One in particular I had about robots and A.I. sounds really promising for this project. I'm doing some research on A.I. right now to get some ideas of things to explore in the book, but I am not writing a single word down until March. My goal is to have a 50,000 word draft done by March 31 @ 11:59 pm.
I've never written a novel before. When I was in high school I started writing one after I had read the Lord of the Rings trilogy but it is long lost. I had also tried writing some short stories and I was terrible at it. I pretty much gave up and just stuck to non-fiction. I had an instructor for one of my classes this past summer who wrote a screenplay about werewolves and he talked about being in the library and doing research and all these other things. I played Sims 3 and had my character write novels as well. Nick has notebooks full of story ideas and has actually written some really good short stories. A friend of ours is working on a novel. When I stumbled across NaNoWriMo and saw this book, I thought that I could probably give this another shot.
One thing I realize now, writing novels takes work. Writing fictional stories, just like writing non-fiction reports or technical writing, takes practice to develop the skillset. Because short stories are so different from novels, you can't really practice by writing short stories. You're better off just writing a novel and if there's not enough content, then trim it down. I think if I just give this a shot and see how it goes. I have no aspirations, like the books suggest, I just want to write something that won't make people vomit when they read it.
I think what's inspiring me is lately I've been feeling really frustrated and empty. Like there's something in my life I need to do, something I haven't fulfilled. Which logically doesn't make sense because in a career sense I'm very happy with where I'm at. Materially I'd like to not be living paycheck to paycheck, but that's pretty normal these days (sadly). Besides material circumstances aren't really something we have much control over. I know that in my life I need to have a steady creative outlet in order to feel fulfilled. I've been knitting and doing crafty things which is good but not the level of creativity that I need.
I was getting into drawing and painting awhile back and I still really want to do comics. I still have story ideas and that's another path I want to explore, but it seems like I need to work more on my skills and I still need some special equipment. I can still explore this but I know it will take time. I'm definitely only a mediocre artist at best although I've always enjoyed drawing.
Writing a novel on the other hand doesn't require any special skills or extra steps. The barriers holding me back from finishing my comic idea aren't there with my novel idea. I know that I need to be doing something creative in order to feel comfortable. In my previous post I talked about dieting and needing to lose weight. I think as I'm working on this novel through the month of March hopefully it will help me with my dieting.
I've never written a novel before. When I was in high school I started writing one after I had read the Lord of the Rings trilogy but it is long lost. I had also tried writing some short stories and I was terrible at it. I pretty much gave up and just stuck to non-fiction. I had an instructor for one of my classes this past summer who wrote a screenplay about werewolves and he talked about being in the library and doing research and all these other things. I played Sims 3 and had my character write novels as well. Nick has notebooks full of story ideas and has actually written some really good short stories. A friend of ours is working on a novel. When I stumbled across NaNoWriMo and saw this book, I thought that I could probably give this another shot.
One thing I realize now, writing novels takes work. Writing fictional stories, just like writing non-fiction reports or technical writing, takes practice to develop the skillset. Because short stories are so different from novels, you can't really practice by writing short stories. You're better off just writing a novel and if there's not enough content, then trim it down. I think if I just give this a shot and see how it goes. I have no aspirations, like the books suggest, I just want to write something that won't make people vomit when they read it.
I think what's inspiring me is lately I've been feeling really frustrated and empty. Like there's something in my life I need to do, something I haven't fulfilled. Which logically doesn't make sense because in a career sense I'm very happy with where I'm at. Materially I'd like to not be living paycheck to paycheck, but that's pretty normal these days (sadly). Besides material circumstances aren't really something we have much control over. I know that in my life I need to have a steady creative outlet in order to feel fulfilled. I've been knitting and doing crafty things which is good but not the level of creativity that I need.
I was getting into drawing and painting awhile back and I still really want to do comics. I still have story ideas and that's another path I want to explore, but it seems like I need to work more on my skills and I still need some special equipment. I can still explore this but I know it will take time. I'm definitely only a mediocre artist at best although I've always enjoyed drawing.
Writing a novel on the other hand doesn't require any special skills or extra steps. The barriers holding me back from finishing my comic idea aren't there with my novel idea. I know that I need to be doing something creative in order to feel comfortable. In my previous post I talked about dieting and needing to lose weight. I think as I'm working on this novel through the month of March hopefully it will help me with my dieting.