Ah, NaNoWriMo

So I've set out to fail at NaNoWriMo again this year. It's not that surprising, I fail at most things I attempt. But I actually _did_ write a 50,000 word novel(la) in July of '05. I got the Write a Novel in a Month book by Chris Baty and my brother and I managed to complete it. Actually, that smug bastard finished like a couple weeks early.

Well, I haven't completed a novel since then and, no surprise, I started out by dropping 1k words on Nov. 1 this year, had dinner and then stopped. I finally found a bit of subject matter the other night and started writing again. It was late at night though, and I only got ~400 words out before the big eyelid faeries started working their magic. And it's been laziness and football (gee, you don't say) ever since then, so I'm pretty much up the proverbial.

Anyhow, back to my original thought train. So I get this email from Chris Baty as part of the encouraging the novelistas thing during November, and he starts talking about week two and how it's all about the plot developing, because you've already fleshed out your characters. No way. The first time I did this nonsense, it was at about this time that I gave up on trying to actually write a novel where people interacted and cut right to the zombies. Well, it was a toss up between that or aliens. Zombies won. They're easier to write. They have very simple motivation.

Also, if you're doing NaNoWriMo and checking your email, I think that chances are you're going to fail. Miserably.

But isn't that half the fun?

NaNoWriMo

Ladies and gentlemen, it's almost time for NaNoWriMo 2007! And I'm all signed up and ready to go. All I have to do now is come up with a novel. But that's the easy part anyhow, right?

I did a month-long-novel in July '05 and only finished because I wrote the last some 15k words in a two-day writing binge. But oh was it beautiful. Well, as beautiful as a novel about family, friends and love which halfway through turns into a supernatural zombie hell-on-earth survival story can be. Which I think is pretty beautiful. I was tempted to do aliens, but zombies won out in the end. They're easier to write. You don't have to worry much about motivation when motivation is brains. Aliens are all complicated and have technology and desires and all that nonsense. Except alien zombies, which might just be where my next novel lands once I've given up on plot.