Latest Entry

01/11/2002
Well here it is, my first entry. Ok, this is going to be brief and to the point. I have decided to take up the NANOWRIMO Challenge. What is NANOWRIMO I hear you cry; basically it's 30 days of trying to write a novel in all its unedited glory. However, there's a catch, it has to contain a minimum of 50,000 words!

Am I crazy? Most definitely. Can I do it? We shall see. I'm not going to blow my own trumpet on this and say it's going to be a piece of cake, because it isn't. I have never actually finished a story properly yet, but I'm hoping that this will be the 'make or break' for me. I believe this challenge will be the only way I can tell if I really am going to take this whole writing malarkey seriously.

I've decided to post, with luck, every day what I have written. It will be unedited, and probably undecipherable nonsense. And that's the beauty of this challenge, it's not about writing the modern day classic. It's about actually getting something finished, working to a deadline.

Needless to say my diet will consist of nicotine, caffeine and large doses of chocolate intravenously admitted into my body. I have set myself goals, two of which I've broken straight away! Nevertheless, am I panicking, you bet your ass I am.

Well gotta go, have to write a novel. See ya!

02/11/2002
Well day two of the challenge and I have posted my first part. It has a word count of 1,505 words so far. Which is a huge improvement on day one which was zilch. Unfortunately the muse escaped me on day one, leaving me staring at a blank screen.

The surprising thing is, this story is not the one I was planning to write. I had my story mapped out, characters, plot, and all good to go. However, I tried several times to make a start but just couldn't. So I decided to use some writers block techniques suggested by a good friend and fellow writer.

I tried to write about something I knew about, my fingers started flowing and they did not stop. Reading it through I know it needs work, but this is more a shove for me when it comes to actually finishing something. I have a deadline to meet; I really want to do it. Another good friend has told me I must have confidence in my writing, she is right, I know.

Though gaining the confidence is going to be hard, I can admit freely I'm not clever. I never have been. Though in the last year I have done things, said things even written things I never thought possible. Am I proud? Yes.

Well stay tuned for tomorrows exciting adventure.Not!

03/11/2002
Well I've posted a little bit more, just to try to finish off that page. Hopefully it should read better in a semi chaptered state. My word count is now 2287. Its getting higher the pinnacle will be to get past 10 thousand words, then I know I'm doing well.

Spoke to mum earlier, I'm going to post her poetry on my site, it's really good. It was her way of dealing with losing dad after 34 years of marriage. Though she seems to be getting stronger each day, it hit us all hard when he died. It was just so unexpected, I miss him lots. Well only a short post, as it's just after midnight and my bed is calling me. Nite.

05/11/2002

Major Development. I have dumped my story. Why, because I just couldn't go anywhere with it. There was absolutely no plot, and it was starting to bore me. I posted a query on the NANOWRIMO forum about changing my story; nobody seems to mind about it.

They suggested I still keep my previous one up and keep the word count. Tempting, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that. Therefore, I'm risking it all by starting all over with a new story. Which, believe it or not, is the story I was originally intending to write for this challenge.

I feel there's a lesson here somewhere, but heck if I can figure it out. Maybe it's the one where you should plan in advance and know what you're going to write. Rather than just writing off the cuff like I am.

Well, we'll see what happens.

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