Nano Nano

I received an e-mail from Chris Baty.

As soon as I saw the name, I knew. Yes, it's near time to sign up for this year's National Novel Writing Competition. Or should it be International? Then it would be INO, so maybe not... It just doesn't have the same ring.

Anyway... after last year's effort, I wondered if I would give this year a miss. 184k of words, nearly three books took a lot out of me, especially since I was working full time. But I figured, why the hell not?

The problem, of course, is that this type of competition speaks directly to my inner athlete and she's never been able to resist a challenge. The first year, 2003, it was a challenge to make the 50k mark - I thought that if I had an idea I would do it and that idea turned up on the first of November; the second year my aim was to reach 100k after which I kind of ran out of steam. By the third year, it was more about keeping up with Lizette Gifford, the master of Nano, from the Forward Motion site. Last year, the challenge was the books: whether I could write a trilogy in the time available.

I'm not being arrogant here, I have the advantage of being able to type at near 100wpm. But all that speed is useless if I don't know what to write. In previous years, I've just thought about it a couple of days in advance - not the best way to approach the challenge - and thrown myself into it.

On the plus side, I've had to focus on the work, steep myself in the world I'm thinking of and directing it onto the keyboard - an exhausting way to write. On the negative side, I can't see any problems with the work until months afterwards, and there can be plot holes a planet could hang in and disappearing characters. The worst of it is that I have to stop writing in order to sleep, eat, make coffee, all that mundane stuff that gets in the way of a good time.

This year, I'm going to try and crush that inner athlete; take my time with the work. I'm even going to try and have some plot notes sorted and I'm determined not to stray too far from the path. I've got a month to do that, and then, come November, I can see how quickly I can reach the... oh, damn... the bloody athlete's awake and limbering up...

Sign up is 1 October for pre-Nano activities. It might even be an idea to post snippets one day a week. Anyone else going to join the mayhem?