Nanowrimo

I think all of you understand that I like to write. Well, last year I participated in something called Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo is a contest where authors attempt to pen a 50,000 word (175 page) novel in 30 days. It runs for the entire month of November and can be very difficult. I tried it last year and failed to accomplish the goal of finishing, even though I was successful in reaching 12,000 words (which to me was a huge accomplishment). Last year I was plague by responsibility, the most pressing being all the debate tournaments I had as well as an audit held the week of Thanksgiving. I was also working two days for Atomic, so needless to say I gave myself plenty of excuses not to write.

I am considering trying this again. I'm not really sure what I want to write about, but am considering a story loosely based on the story of the Wolves of Paris. The Wolves of Paris were a pack of man-eating dogs plaguing Paris in 1450, killing 40 people. The leader of the pack was lured into the Notre Dame Cathedral and killed on the steps leading up to the altar. It seems like a pretty compelling story, though I am considering having it set in 21st century America following the collapse of the American economic struture leading to an economic apocalpyse and decay of our society. Not real sure I know how I would go about getting there, but I think it would take a whole lot of words to do so, which is the purpose of Nanowrimo (quantity over quality).

I've got a couple of other ideas, though nothing really fleshed out that I could right about. My story, Corpse, which some of you may have read some of earlier on in this blog was my attempt from last year, though it fizzled out once I started rereading and editting what I had submitted. This year I won't be changing anything, leaving the story as is in an attempt to just meet my word count goals.

Why am I writing this here? Well, the fact is I don't think I can do this without help. 50,000 words is a grueling amount of writing. I hit writers bloc just like everyone else or I start to get lazy and I really need encouragement to meet my goal. I am a chronic project abandoner. This is a huge project and if I don't get help, I will fail. So, I'm asking all of you who read this to help me with Nanowrimo. If you want to read more about it, go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I would love to accomplish this. If you have a story idea, or words of encouragement I really could use them. Over the next day or two I am going to work on coming up with a brief outline for my story. Chances are it will be changing, maybe dramatically, especially if I come up with a new idea I might be interested in writing about.

Anyone think I can do this? I sure would like to. Writing a book is something I've always wanted to do. Maybe November will be my month to accomplish it?