Sunday, October 31, 2010

NaNoWriMo

So it's been awhile.

So Starcraft 2 is like a black hole of free time. For the last month or so, my life has been pretty much devoured by it. I've written nothing. No stories, no outlines, no blog posts . . . I've barely written any emails. My friends should count themselves lucky I even deigned to talk to them.

You should definitely take that as an endorsement of the game. I expect my large check in the mail any day now, Blizzard.

Large.

Anyway, it's time for me to hop back on the horse and be a little more responsible. Now is a good day to make that decision, as NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I'm excited about it, and plan on winning this time. (Winning involves writing the requisite 50,000 words during November and is entirely self-governed. Anyone can claim to have won and submit 50,000 words of gibberish, but what's the fun in that?) I am tweaking the rules a bit, though.

The standard idea is to write 50,000 words of a novel, hence the name: National Novel Writing Month. I will still write 50,000 words, but I will write stories instead of a novel. I would rather end the month with five to ten stories instead of a single partial novel. It stays within the spirit of the thing, I think, and I'll feel more accomplished.

I brainstormed today with a friend, and came up with several concepts for potential stories. Tomorrow morning I will choose one, and I will start writing until I finish it. Then I will choose another, and so on and so forth.

Here's my profile, if anyone wants to follow my progress for some reason.

The most important thing about something like this is to remember to have fun, and not stress. The idea isn't to burn yourself out so much you don't write at all for another year; it's to push yourself.

So let's push ourselves.

Edit: Wow, the Nano site is being HAMMERED tonight. Hopefully that's a good sign. I love to see people writing.