NaNoWriMo... or NaNoWriNoMo

I am the Warden!!

No, let me correct that.

(sigh) I am the Warden.

This novel, she puzzles me, intrepid readers. It pains me to admit, but I haven't written anything solid for the past three days. If I have any defence, the time was spent working on other projects, particularly the Adventurer gamebook, Fires Across the Plains. I had a different goal set to accomplish that project in time and needed to fire it off regardless of anything else for the sheer sake that it's a paid contract. (And technically my first in years, therefore the first of my full-time career.)

Now I have to confess. Part of that last paragraph was a lie. I could have easily put in the work on my novel, Messenger. I simply didn't.

We've established already this is my first serious attempt at completing any fictional writing aside from the occasional brief story used in RPG supplements and personal campaigns and taking this vehicle from 0 to 60 in 6 seconds has proven to be a true endurance challenge. When I started, I had it my mind to write a complete work of fiction from beginning to end and I've been treating this as such, save for the advanced planning and conception stages other projects require. It's worked out well during the initial stages of the story, starting from intense action and intrigue, some burglary, story-based dialogue as the protagonist learns their mission, escapes from enemies, even wanders the Wild for a chapter. While the last chapter was quite the challenge - I've never written a lot of exposition and travel scenes before - this new one has truly escaped me.

NaNoWriMo: The Quest for 50,000 Words

I am the Warden!!

While I'm waiting for videos to upload from my phone, it's time to start thinking about this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, I think). Scratch that! It's time to start doing something about it, not just thinking about it.

Ever since I first found out about this annual goal for aspiring writers to write at least 50,000 words within the month of November last year, I've aspired to do something about it this year. In typical fashion, it feels like every other month would have allowed time and investment in such a project and November 2012 seems overburdened already, but such as it is. Despite my workload, I'm going to try and find a way to make it happen.

So what am I planning to write about? That's a good question.

There are two projects in mind. The first is a Killshot short story involving a detailed analysis of how a young fellow becomes a professional assassin. The second is a fantasy novel. That's about as far as I've gone with either idea. Every day for the past week, I've darted back and forth between which project should take priority and neither one seems to secure the lead in this race. With the starting pistol hours away from going off, it's time for me to make a decision.

As much as I could make use of a Killshot novel, there's a big part of me craving something different. Step away from the same type of work I've been doing these past couple of years and write something for myself. In other words, it feels as if I want to write a Killshot novel so that I'll have a Killshot novel to sell. With the fantasy novel, I have no aspiring plans other than the standard idea to sell it as a self-published ebook if I like the final result, but that's not the priority.

Then again, I have no idea what this fantasy novel will be about, let alone details of the world. Any ideas bouncing around are not concrete enough to announce here, so it would literally involve a more complicated endeavour than the Killshot novel, where at least I know the plot. And it would involve the real world, something that's already created with millions of supplements available on a daily basis. It would be harder to write a fantasy novel at this point with the workload already on my plate and numerous appointments on tap for the month. (I'm already losing out on the first day when I go in for the first cortisone injection tomorrow morning.)

The thing about harder projects is that they're very attractive options for me. A challenge mocking me in the background and I'm always up for showing a challenge who's boss. It may not be the best idea - how can it be any worse if I don't even have an idea? - but it looks like I need to piece together 50,000 words of fantasy.

Maybe I could just write some S&M fanfare using alternate names for Middle Earth characters as a backup plan.