NaNoWriMo!

Is it cheating to start NaNoWriMo early?

Probably.

Who cares?! I feel the urge to write so you know what? I'm doing it. What with all the parenthood activities that are coming up, and getting ready for the baby and work getting kind of heavy, I figure I need all the time I can squeeze. 

Last night I stayed up and banged out 1700 words of a whole new intro to Everyone Goes To Hell, the entry for NaNoWriMo. I last worked on this maybe five years ago? I only got a few chapters in before I stopped, about 10k words, so it's not like it was a huge overhaul like my fantasy story. 

I find that I'm drawing a LOT of inspiration from the styles I've read from the Writers of the Future anthologies. The stories that I've really liked have thriller pacing and don't stop to explain things, they've got places to go! So I'm attempting to emulate that extreme version of "in late, out early". It makes sense for 17K words. 

So, as it stands I've gotten 2 stories that haven't placed in WoF quarters, which is fine. I really feel my writing has gotten a bit better even in the short months I've been actively working on it. Comparing the first story on this blog "Earworm" with "The Boyfriend from Hell" I think I see improvement. Maybe I'm fooling myself but let's hope not.

To be honest, I'm trying not to focus on the 17k wordcount I had originally meant to script Everyone Goes to Hell for, because I think I sabotage myself that way. I'm going to dedicate all of NaNoWriMo to it, in a mad, month-long writing frenzy and I'll edit as needed come December. Maybe it'll be eligible for submission, maybe not. If I'm really happy with it (and it's at least novella length) I might start sending it out to publishers/agents. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. 

EGtH is meant to be part of the larger Monster World universe I want to tie together (tBfH falls into that too) but I feel that my story has a danger of becoming a bit preachy. I'm working on those pitfalls, but I suppose that's what the writing group is meant for as well. I don't think anyone there reads this blog, but I'm really going to be a pain in the ass this next month. I'm going to do my best to hold up my part, critique and help their efforts, but I expect reciprocity. 

It's tough to be remote, though. 

Anyway.., gotta get to work first before I can actually do what I like later today...

- Chair!
Ciro IzarraComment