Okay, I’ve been talking about doing NaNoWriMo for a while now, but now it’s ON. I was able to convince everyone in my writing critique group to do this with me. Okay, well, against me. We all write, and the guy with the lowest final word count buys pizza for the group.
If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, this is an annual “competition” to try to write a full novel, at least 50,000 words, in a single month. From November 1st to 30th, NaNoWriMo participants will try to write 2,000 words a day or so. Admittedly, with that kind of pressure the bar is a bit lower than we might otherwise use– lowered from “great American novel” to “will not make peopel vomit” in the words of NaNoWriMo’s founder– but that’s kind of the point. This is the ultimate “shitty first draft.”
To make things more interesting, I’ll continue to blog here about my experiences and the process of writing a full novel in a month. I’m excited. This is going to be a lot of fun and I have a great idea. Actually, it’s a pretty bad idea, but it’s great in its badness.
I’m going to write a good old fashioned disaster movie. Think Armageddon meets Dante’s Peak. The working title is “Yellowstone” and it’s about what happens when the world’s only above-sea supervolcano finally blows. All I have right now is the idea and the young, rakishly handsome scientist that’s figured out exactly what it’s going to do won’t get anyone to listen to him. The question is, other than time and Old Yeller itself, who is the antagonist in this story? Who would have a vested interest in shutting up someone yelling that Yellowstone is about to blow? The parks department? The Wyoming Tourism Board? Dick Cheney?
Oh, this is going to be fun…
One Comment
This is intended ONLY to be constructive. Would it not be so much more interesting if your basic plot was not the same as every disaster movie ever made? IOW, why does the scientist have to be handsome? Why does he have to be right? Why dos no one ever belive these people?
Just look at movies these days. The writers are no longer even pretending to write new material … they are simply remaking old movies. They are not even changing the names!
Think back to the days of the ORIGINAL “Twilight Zone” (not the lame retread on today, LOL
What made it so interesting is that you never knew how a story would end. What if the horribly disfigured woman in the hospital bed, the one so ugly they camera could not show her face, turned out to be the only good looking person in a world of disfigured people? What if you were a petty thief who was shot in a holdup and went to heaven … but discovered that getting everything you ever wanted was really your own personal custom designed hell?
Just a constructive thought, FWIW. In any case, good luck with your project.
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