NANOWRIMO
national novel writing month
national novel writing month
NANOWRIMO is a website where
people go to cheer each other on as
they strive to write a 50,000 word
novel in 30 days every November.
That comes out to 1667 words a day.
people go to cheer each other on as
they strive to write a 50,000 word
novel in 30 days every November.
That comes out to 1667 words a day.
I did a good start a few years ago but got sidetracked and
lost my steam. The most I got was thirty-something
thousand. Since then I've tried to add to the story but
haven't had the drive to do so. NANOWRIMO is good
because it gets me in the habit of sitting down to write
everyday.
That's the point. You don't have to write great and NO
EDITING is allowed in November. Editing is saved for the
month of December.
lost my steam. The most I got was thirty-something
thousand. Since then I've tried to add to the story but
haven't had the drive to do so. NANOWRIMO is good
because it gets me in the habit of sitting down to write
everyday.
That's the point. You don't have to write great and NO
EDITING is allowed in November. Editing is saved for the
month of December.
So here is what I've written thus far. Okay, actually what
I had a few years ago and what I have started to add to
this year. I have lots of homework I have to do (I am
behind) and double shifts at work and a four day drill
weekend coming up. It will be a test to see if I can keep
up or if I have to pull an all nighter at the end. But it is
something I want to do. I have started to think of myself
as a writer, but a writer who is unpublished at this time.
I had a few years ago and what I have started to add to
this year. I have lots of homework I have to do (I am
behind) and double shifts at work and a four day drill
weekend coming up. It will be a test to see if I can keep
up or if I have to pull an all nighter at the end. But it is
something I want to do. I have started to think of myself
as a writer, but a writer who is unpublished at this time.
I have roughly named it Jera, but that
title will likely change. It is a story of
orcs, dragons, druids, magic and swords.
What I have attempted to do is to not
write the typical fantasy story where the
heroes go on a quest to find a magic sword
to save the helpless damsel. Instead I am
interested in moral problems and the
battles we wage inside our hearts and how
I might draw up different characters that a
reader might consider as similar to his/her
self. I think that fantasy can be (and has
been) a serious genre for writers and to
think of it as merely fairy tales for
children is to miss out on a wide and
wonderful world of ideas.
There is a commercial on t.v. that says
"wars change, weapons change, soldiers
don't" and as I am writing about fighting
trolls and orcs and dragons, it is still a
book about people and what they go
through, particularly in war.
title will likely change. It is a story of
orcs, dragons, druids, magic and swords.
What I have attempted to do is to not
write the typical fantasy story where the
heroes go on a quest to find a magic sword
to save the helpless damsel. Instead I am
interested in moral problems and the
battles we wage inside our hearts and how
I might draw up different characters that a
reader might consider as similar to his/her
self. I think that fantasy can be (and has
been) a serious genre for writers and to
think of it as merely fairy tales for
children is to miss out on a wide and
wonderful world of ideas.
There is a commercial on t.v. that says
"wars change, weapons change, soldiers
don't" and as I am writing about fighting
trolls and orcs and dragons, it is still a
book about people and what they go
through, particularly in war.
More story ideas:
When taking various environmental and philosophy classes I
began to wonder what might happen if we saw environmental
choices as moral choices instead of economic or lifestyle
choices. While reading some America history and the debates
in Congress concerning slavery I was struck by the similarity of
language used for the defense of slavery. I hear the same tone,
the same spirit, in language by corporations today as they
destroy our common environment. So my idea was to create a
character that everyone would like. This good man, smart,
caring, providing for his family, would be a lawyer and would
find himself representing his state in the newly formed
Congress. He would then argue for slavery. I wanted to argue
for slavery as best as I could.
Some have questioned me on this, but this is not the whole
story. I take as a given that the average person today will see
slavery as wrong and to not be tolerated. I wanted the reader to
view the problem from a moral standpoint and no matter the
economic arguments, or the common opinion of the day, given
by this nice guy character, the reader would still see the larger
issue of human dignity. And if this is the case, then I had the
reader set up for the second part of my book, the attack on their
current rationale. For in the second part I would flash forward
two hundred years to today and another nice man. He is smart,
caring, volunteers at community events, and pays good money
to his workers in the company he owns. There are, however,
some practices of the company that are done for economic
reasons that have a negative impact on the environment. His
arguments for doing so are the status quo, that everyone else is
doing it, an issue of efficacy, and the bottom dollar. Yet if I can
prepare the reader for the moral view, to see that some matters
of our environmental destruction are NOT to be viewed as
economic but because of their very shared nature in the
interdependant world they then become moral matters, then I
might do something good in the world.
Another book idea is to write story of two new parents who have
a daughter. The father dies early on and an aunt moves in to
help raise the kid and to pay bills. The kid grows up to be a
good, well rounded person. It is a story of a childhood and
events thereof. At the end of the story it is found out that the
aunt is not an aunt at all but another love of the mother's life
(the dichotomy of gay/straight doesn't really fit as studies show,
it is more of a spectrum) and the kid, now grown, who had
grown to believe what some of the religious right have said that
gays are wrong and shouldn't be married and shouldn't raise
kids, is now forced to consider the love that she felt in the
household, the love and good times her mother experienced,
and how perhaps the notions of hatred against the gay
community are not justified by scriptures of love, but dictated
by fear and hate. I got this idea while talking with a student at
PSU who was doing research on gay rights and we threw some
ideas around.
Another idea is one that I am letting stew right now in my head
for either a Summer writing start or for the 2008 Nanowrimo
event. For a 'Literature of War' class I turned in a 90 page class
journal with tons of pictures from the net and poems and song
lyrics and stuff that had meaning for me. My prof told me I
ought to write a book. I didn't think I had enough material
from my autobiographical tour of war to fill a book. She said I
could use it as fuel for a story. As I've wrestled with lots of
ideas over the last year, ideas on war, on masculinity, on the
environment, on family, on religion, on politics, on dealing with
doing harm to others and so forth, I think that a deep and great
story lies within me. This story is a man who goes to war and
comes back home and tries to fit back into society at large. He
wrestles with notions of sex, of anger, of meaning in life and
religion, and so on. I've already got two characters in my mind
that I'd want to create... Manuel, a Hispanic friend from the
military who has a large family and very social and argues for
greater good ethics, and Jeremy who argues for the rightness of
actions based on utilitarianism. Get it? Immanuel Kant and
Jeremy Bentham? Philosophy? Of course I'd have other
characters who would give voice to other notions. I am
interested in giving voice to many sides of different issues
through story and, perhaps, to show how complicated things are
(and how simple they are as well) than just a black/white world.
When taking various environmental and philosophy classes I
began to wonder what might happen if we saw environmental
choices as moral choices instead of economic or lifestyle
choices. While reading some America history and the debates
in Congress concerning slavery I was struck by the similarity of
language used for the defense of slavery. I hear the same tone,
the same spirit, in language by corporations today as they
destroy our common environment. So my idea was to create a
character that everyone would like. This good man, smart,
caring, providing for his family, would be a lawyer and would
find himself representing his state in the newly formed
Congress. He would then argue for slavery. I wanted to argue
for slavery as best as I could.
Some have questioned me on this, but this is not the whole
story. I take as a given that the average person today will see
slavery as wrong and to not be tolerated. I wanted the reader to
view the problem from a moral standpoint and no matter the
economic arguments, or the common opinion of the day, given
by this nice guy character, the reader would still see the larger
issue of human dignity. And if this is the case, then I had the
reader set up for the second part of my book, the attack on their
current rationale. For in the second part I would flash forward
two hundred years to today and another nice man. He is smart,
caring, volunteers at community events, and pays good money
to his workers in the company he owns. There are, however,
some practices of the company that are done for economic
reasons that have a negative impact on the environment. His
arguments for doing so are the status quo, that everyone else is
doing it, an issue of efficacy, and the bottom dollar. Yet if I can
prepare the reader for the moral view, to see that some matters
of our environmental destruction are NOT to be viewed as
economic but because of their very shared nature in the
interdependant world they then become moral matters, then I
might do something good in the world.
Another book idea is to write story of two new parents who have
a daughter. The father dies early on and an aunt moves in to
help raise the kid and to pay bills. The kid grows up to be a
good, well rounded person. It is a story of a childhood and
events thereof. At the end of the story it is found out that the
aunt is not an aunt at all but another love of the mother's life
(the dichotomy of gay/straight doesn't really fit as studies show,
it is more of a spectrum) and the kid, now grown, who had
grown to believe what some of the religious right have said that
gays are wrong and shouldn't be married and shouldn't raise
kids, is now forced to consider the love that she felt in the
household, the love and good times her mother experienced,
and how perhaps the notions of hatred against the gay
community are not justified by scriptures of love, but dictated
by fear and hate. I got this idea while talking with a student at
PSU who was doing research on gay rights and we threw some
ideas around.
Another idea is one that I am letting stew right now in my head
for either a Summer writing start or for the 2008 Nanowrimo
event. For a 'Literature of War' class I turned in a 90 page class
journal with tons of pictures from the net and poems and song
lyrics and stuff that had meaning for me. My prof told me I
ought to write a book. I didn't think I had enough material
from my autobiographical tour of war to fill a book. She said I
could use it as fuel for a story. As I've wrestled with lots of
ideas over the last year, ideas on war, on masculinity, on the
environment, on family, on religion, on politics, on dealing with
doing harm to others and so forth, I think that a deep and great
story lies within me. This story is a man who goes to war and
comes back home and tries to fit back into society at large. He
wrestles with notions of sex, of anger, of meaning in life and
religion, and so on. I've already got two characters in my mind
that I'd want to create... Manuel, a Hispanic friend from the
military who has a large family and very social and argues for
greater good ethics, and Jeremy who argues for the rightness of
actions based on utilitarianism. Get it? Immanuel Kant and
Jeremy Bentham? Philosophy? Of course I'd have other
characters who would give voice to other notions. I am
interested in giving voice to many sides of different issues
through story and, perhaps, to show how complicated things are
(and how simple they are as well) than just a black/white world.
92,799 words total
134 pages
last updated Jan 31th
