T-minus 17 days or so and counting
Oct. 14th, 2012 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allisnowSo I'm having a lot of NaNo-related uncertainty right now.
The last two years, I 'won' NaNo (i.e. I wrote 50K words in the month of November) with original fiction - girl-centric fantasy - but never actually finished the stories. They're still just sitting there and I have no overwhelming desire to pick them up again.
I have a third original story on my drive that I've been picking at here and there, and I have a ton of notes and timelines and whatnot written up for it, but I've always read how bad it is to use an established idea for NaNo because of the fear of completely screwing it up. Which is totally me.
When I started thinking about NaNo at the start of the month I generated a germ of an idea... something a little more scifi than fantasy, figuring a change of pace might be a good thing. However, it's still really only a germ. I know a few facts about my MC and her world and that's it. And the idea of going into November with an almost completely-blank slate is... well, I know some people do it, but it's kind of freaking me out.
And then there's always fanfic. I've never done fic for NaNo before, even though it's kosher, because I figured the whole idea was for me to stretch myself. But there's this sequel to White Blank Page lurking in the back of my mind that I'm pretty sure I want to write, and I know from prior experience that I could pound out 50K of Clint/Natasha and Team easy, but... I don't know. It kind of feels like cheating. :\
Oh, by the way, I know it's mostly PMS, but I'm getting ticked off by the commercials for this "Alex Cross" movie. STFU, morons, it's Aaron Cross. JEEZ.
The last two years, I 'won' NaNo (i.e. I wrote 50K words in the month of November) with original fiction - girl-centric fantasy - but never actually finished the stories. They're still just sitting there and I have no overwhelming desire to pick them up again.
I have a third original story on my drive that I've been picking at here and there, and I have a ton of notes and timelines and whatnot written up for it, but I've always read how bad it is to use an established idea for NaNo because of the fear of completely screwing it up. Which is totally me.
When I started thinking about NaNo at the start of the month I generated a germ of an idea... something a little more scifi than fantasy, figuring a change of pace might be a good thing. However, it's still really only a germ. I know a few facts about my MC and her world and that's it. And the idea of going into November with an almost completely-blank slate is... well, I know some people do it, but it's kind of freaking me out.
And then there's always fanfic. I've never done fic for NaNo before, even though it's kosher, because I figured the whole idea was for me to stretch myself. But there's this sequel to White Blank Page lurking in the back of my mind that I'm pretty sure I want to write, and I know from prior experience that I could pound out 50K of Clint/Natasha and Team easy, but... I don't know. It kind of feels like cheating. :\
Oh, by the way, I know it's mostly PMS, but I'm getting ticked off by the commercials for this "Alex Cross" movie. STFU, morons, it's Aaron Cross. JEEZ.
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Date: 2012-10-15 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 04:23 am (UTC)I'm glad you can be so calm about this.
*PMSes*
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Date: 2012-10-15 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 04:29 am (UTC)At least we know Scarlett feels your pain....
Date: 2012-10-15 04:33 am (UTC)Re: At least we know Scarlett feels your pain....
Date: 2012-10-15 04:35 am (UTC)Re: At least we know Scarlett feels your pain....
Date: 2012-10-15 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 04:34 am (UTC)You left off your conclusion, but I can guess it - and I share the problem. Apparently it's commonplace, to have a glowing idea and write it out… and run out of steam and interest, start another with the same result - then another…
If I trawl back through my archives, I can pile up six (6) different writing projects that turned out that way. At least two of them would be really good, if they were finished. Well, y' know, maybe, someday…
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder
What SHOULD you do? Ignore NaNoWriMo and finish one of those winning entries instead.
Just as I should do with one of mine. Mmm hmm.
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Date: 2012-10-15 04:38 am (UTC)At least if I went the fic route, I know of enough people who would harass me to finish it, whether in November or after ;)
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Date: 2012-10-15 11:41 am (UTC)I would lobby pretty hard for the fic route, honestly... (yes, this is in part total self-interest, because NEW FIC... and I still need to go read White Blank Page - I LOVED the first chapter but was afraid to read something too long and plotty while still trying to plot out Heavy and also finish my Big Bang. SO CLOSE though. I need to read it before November. :D) But self-interest aside, as you say, you'll have a built in cheering section to prod you to finish after November.
I've got several fics on my harddrive that were NaNo projects that haven't yet seen the light of day (though I haven't given up hope on them) but by the same token, even if I never do finish them, I know that doing it for so many years is why I've been able to write as much as I have, and the way that I have all summer. I've tried original fic a couple times (both years because my friend talked me into it because it would at least theoretically be good for me - they were both unmitigated disasters (that half way through the month became fanfic because it just was. not. working. There was some very creative frame-story involved there. ;) )
I guess where I'm going with this is that I'm all about NaNo-enablement and willing to listen/help/cheer etc. if you want me to. :D
Also, of course it's Aaron Cross. Duh. Why are they dumb? ;)
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Date: 2012-10-16 02:14 am (UTC)That said, I have a while to go... I'm going to keep thinking through both ideas (because right now my fic idea is kinda vague as well) and see what happens!
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Date: 2012-10-16 02:34 am (UTC)::facepalm::
Suffice it to say, by the second or third week, Scorpius Malfoy developed a secret desire to be a novelist and forced Rose to read his rather terrible attempt at a muggle fantasy novel. Yay frame stories for the win! (And last year's attempt at regency romance devolved into HP Feels and Snippets, because fail.) So yeah, no word count police. ;)
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Date: 2012-10-16 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 03:13 pm (UTC)If it makes you feel better about it, you could work on the germ and the fanfic at the same time. It takes the pressure off the germ by insuring that something gets written (because it sounds like you've got that idea very firmly in hand and could write it easily) but also means the germ doesn't get pushed off if it does prove to become a full-blown flower. While not necessarily in the rules, I've decided that you get a free pass every once and awhile because NaNo is all about getting in the habit of writing and you write consistently so why shouldn't you do something that's going to keep you writing.
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Date: 2012-10-16 02:17 am (UTC)And as far as working on both simultaneously... yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I figure as long as I'm being productive that's the important thing. And it would be nice to have a fall-back story in a universe that I know I can bloviate in :)
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Date: 2012-10-16 06:12 am (UTC)And fall-backs are nice to have! It gives the muse some breathing room!
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Date: 2012-10-15 08:05 pm (UTC)Let's hope we both reach our goals this year! (And definitely consider doing a fic. It might be a nice change of pace for you. )
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Date: 2012-10-16 02:18 am (UTC)