I think it's definite. It's at least probably definite that I'll do NaNoWriMo this year. I've pondered it in the past couple of years, but never felt motivated. This year I have the motivation and the story idea. It's pretty strong, too, so I think it will be reasonably easy.
The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in thirty days. That's substantially a complete novel since most commercial published stories are in the range of 50,000 to 90,000 words, depending on genre.
Because of the time constraint, I've decided that I'm going to do something I never do when it comes to my stories.
I am what's known as a "pantser" - meaning I write by the seat of my pants. I don't draw up an outline for stories. I don't plot them. I don't do character development off to the side. In fact, I don't do much of anything but write them down and then fiddle with them endlessly. Mostly because I hate barriers and restrictions and I do see an outline as a restriction.
If I say, "this is how chapter one should be, and chapter two and..." I get locked in. Then, if something unexpected develops from what I'm writing, I have to struggle with how or whether to follow that thread - even if that thread seems brilliant but will blow the rest of the outline out of the water. It creates an unnecessary conundrum, in my opinion.
Now, because of the time frame and the story I have in mind, I will draw up an outline. I even have the title (I think). Just a bit of research to make sure that James Bond had the proverb correctly when he spoke it. If so, I'm good to go. Otherwise, I'll have to come up with another, similar declaration.
It's going to be a surprise for those who read my posts here. I'm not going to give anything away - not the title, not the outline, nothing. If you want to know what it is, you'll have to wait and then read each day in November because I have decided to serialize it. It should be fun for both of us.
In the meantime, Authonomy did shut down, as HC threatened. It's a sad day for many people, but we have other places to go.
Kudos to Harper Collins for doing the decent thing and giving everyone prior warning. Not just twenty-four hours, either. They gave us more than a month's warning. That was marvelous because it gave us a chance to search out new homes, to discuss them - their pluses and minuses - and to decide what would work for us, as individuals, to reconnect in new places. It was a gracious thing to do and I, for one, appreciate it very much.
I did check out several. Some on which I already had accounts, others were new. None are like Authonomy, but they all have their minuses and pluses, just like everything in life. I've picked my new homes - WriteOn for the writing. It's affiliated with Amazon's Kindle which will make the step to publication easier. Scribblers will be my place for the communing with my fellow writers.
My flash pieces will start on Scribblers and may end up here. Or not. I'll chat there and work on WriteOn. Or maybe I'll do flash on both places since Scribblers has the weekly FFF thread, and WriteOn has a Weekend Write-In. Both are different, both are challenging although I do find the WriteOn theme more difficult since it limits the word count to five hundred instead of one thousand.
If you want to try it, just start writing a story - whatever you choose - and then complete it in under five-hundred words.
It's hard at first, but as with everything else, if you practice, you get better - which means you're cutting the chaff and keeping the kernels, which is something imperative to good writing. You don't want your story to get lost in too many words. Keep it to just enough and you're golden. But it is hard because stories do tend to take on a life of their own.
On WriteOn, I already have two books up and two flash books started. It's an active site and encouraging, although if you're not active your books fall off the radar - which is actually a good thing.
That was one complaint I had about Authonomy, and about Book Country. You never knew whether the book you were reading and commenting upon was active or someone's abandoned baby. In just the past ten days, since I was focused on wedding stuff and wedding recovery, I haven't been writing / updating and posting. And my books have evaporated into the background. Which is fine. I'll get active, they'll resurface and things will get back on track.
I looked at some other places, too, but none compare to Authonomy. And they shouldn't. They should stand or fall on their own merits. Some people like this or that and I don't, so we'll commune together on Scribblers and go our separate ways (or not) for our writing. Pretty much like life.
Now, I hope you have a wonderful day!
Best~
Philippa
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