Friday, October 29, 2010

NaNoWriMo Pregame

There are excited posts popping up all over the blogosphere in these last days before the beginning of NaNo. Participants are in a tizzy making sure they've got their plots all plotted, their characters all sketched, and their immediate work space stocked with snacks and energy drinks. Everyone's buddying up so that those upward-inching progress bars will kick our competitive spirits into overdrive in order to have the highest word count evah!!!

So this is my NaNo pregame post. Yes, I'm participating. This'll be my second year. Last year I "won" writing 50,000 words of the second volume in my paranormal romance series. I've subsequently finished that first draft. So not only did I "win" by writing the obligatory 50,000 words, but I won because I got a usable draft out of it. Win-win, no?

This year I'll be a bit of a cheater-pants in that I'll be adding 50,000 words to a manuscript I've already started. I know NaNo purists will turn up their noses at me for such behavior, but meh. I don't care. The goal is to write 50,000 new words, it shouldn't matter what the project is. I've never been too wound up about following the rules anyway, so it's no big deal to me.

This WIP is a sci-fi/chick lit mashup I was working on this summer before I put it aside to revise in earnest book one of my paranormal romance (which, btw, I just sent out my first five agent query letters on today...wish me luck everyone!).  The NaNo project is completely pantser - no preplotting. I've decided to go this route because the story is a crazy headlong adventure written in present tense first person and I think not having a clue what happens next - much like the main characters themselves - makes writing the story much more urgent and "here and now."  The danger, of course, is writing myself into a corner. But I have a few ideas where I think these characters will end up, so I'm not too worried about it.

So...are you participating in NaNo? If so, my user name is mkdbail (I go by my "real" name over there). Go ahead and buddy me and I'll buddy you back. We'll need all the inspiration, exhortation, and cajolery we can get in order to complete the grueling journey and reach 50,000 words!

10 comments:

Joanna St. James said...

good luck with querying, i am almost getting to that stage. Tis a tedious process luckily it seems most of the agents are beginning to have faster turnarounds :)

J E Fritz said...

Yay! Someone else who isn't spending the week plotting everything out. I don't see why it would be a problem that you're adding 50,000 words to an existing work. I mean, is any book exactly 50K? Mine usually run twenty thousand more than that.

Jamie Manning said...

Congrats on querying...I wish you mucho luck! And I agree that adding words is just as good, no matter what the rules say! I'm going right now to buddy you!

Cinette said...

I have to agree with you; it shouldn't matter where the 50k words are going, as long as you're writing them! I doubt you'll be the only one ajusting the parameters (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Good luck on your queries!

Jennie Bailey said...

There are so many people who seem to be "cheating." I'll be writing something new, but I don't have a problem with someone adding to or even revising a current WIP. Like you said, it's about writing 50,000 NEW words. We're all in this together and it's nice to have company for our journey regardless of what anyone is working on! So I say "BAH!" to all those who refer to "pure" and "cheap"! It is what it is and it's all writing.

Ahem, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Shelley Sly said...

Hi, I came over from Theresa's blog. I'm not doing NaNo, but I wish you and everyone else best of luck!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

They can turn their noses up at me, because I'm doing the same thing - finishing my current project.

Unknown said...

Almost the big day.... yikes!

See you on the way ; )

Maria McKenzie said...

Hi, Mara!

I'm here to haunt you from Theresa'a Halloween Haunting! I'm not doing NaNo, but good luck to you!

Unknown said...

I'm haunting you from Theresa's blog! I'm doing NaNo, too. It's gonna be a blast! Good luck! Awesome blog, btw!