Ok, so I didn't post anything last week. Naughty me. Still, I'm going to be making up for it over the next month or so, or at least I hope so.
This Thursday is Halloween, simultaneously one of my favourite and most hated holidays of the year. I love it because it gives me a chance to be creative, to dress up however I want without fear of any negative comments or too much hassle. (That said, of course, my Punk Rock Dorothy costume two years ago resulted in the loss of my NUS card and about £5 change because people kept lifting up my skirt.) I hate it because there's a certain demographic of people who think that putting on a mask entitles them to do whatever they want, regardless of the safety of themselves or others. Halloween also means that everywhere will be packed this weekend, and not in the good, there's-so-many-people-here-and-there's-great-energy way. In the bad, claustrophobic, elbow in the face, beer down the front, cigarette burn on you hand kind of way.
And after Halloween comes November; the true start of winter. The month of cold, rain, and falling leaves (although we've had quite enough of all three already, thank you very much). The moth of Christmas shopping (hopefully). And, most important of all, the month of NaNo WriMo.
For the uninitiated, Nano Wrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is itself a misnomer as it started in America and has since spread across the world. Every year, writers of all ages, talents, and backgrounds pledge to write 1,667 words each day in November. By the end of the month, they are rewarded with a first draft of a 5,000 word novel. If they finish, of course, which many don't. The idea is to get people writing, without giving them the time to second-guess themselves or worry too much about perfecting their work. When you have that much to write in such a small amount of time there's little, if any, opportunity for editing.
I took part in NaNo for the first time last year, and successfully completed my first novel The King of Dreams. Of course, it's taken me far longer to edit the damn thing than it did to actually write, but there you go. Hopefully, The King, which I am immensely proud of, will find its way to an agent/publisher soon, and thence to the rest of the world. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, this year I thought I'd go one step further. Not only am I taking part in NaNo once more, I'm going to be blogging my chapters as I write them. Or, rather, I'll be posting two chapters up each week in November. I'm planning a novel divided into several volumes, each between 10,000 and 15,000 words. While the chapters of the first volume will be posted on here for all to read and enjoy for free, the entire book will be available to buy online (hopefully through Amazon, iTunes, etc.) at some point in the New Year.
My reasons for doing this are two-fold. First, it will hopefully give me the added incentive I need to keep on writing creatively, even as final year of university crushes the life out of me. Second, it will force me to self-edit as I write, while hopefully getting additional advice from my audience (hint, hint).
Of course, the idea of serialisation isn't new. Dickens did it, and had people lining the docks in New York in order to read the latest instalment of The Old Curiosity Shop. Those writing in the comic book industry effectively divide their stories into 30-page chapters each month. The writers of soap operas do it daily. I have great respect for all of these people and the things they do. Part of the beauty of this is that it allows the story to be delivered in easily digestible, bite-sized chunks. Part of the challenge is knowing that everything you write has to stick; there's no space for errors of rewrites (retcons excluded, of course) when your work is being read almost as soon as you finish it.
On a completely different note, November is also Movember, a month where men around the world grow moustaches to raise awareness for testicular cancer. Or something. No-one I've spoken to really seems to understand the specifics of it, other than not shaving properly for a couple of weeks.
Every year, friends of mine do it, and tell me that I should, too. Every year, I turn them down. I do this because A) If I'm going to do something for charity, I want to know exactly what it is, and how it works. I want to do it properly. People always mention sponsorship in a vague, after-thought kind of way, and that doesn't sit well with me. If this is something that people do to raise money, then I want to raise money, not just take part for the novelty of a hairy upper lip. B) I've never grown a moustache before. In fact, I don't think I've gone more than four days in a row without shaving since I was fifteen. I have no idea if I'm even capable of growing a moustache. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my older brothers have inherited all of the hair in the family gene pool.
But, this year is my final year at university. That means that this is, in many ways, my last chance to do this sort of thing without coming across as an idiot. So why not? Like many of my friends I'll 'look into' sponsorship as I go along, and if I find I can't grow a moustache, well, there's always wigs, right?
So, one massive challenge. One extremely nervous writer. One impending 'tash. A lot that could go wrong. And a lot that will go right.
Check back here on Sunday for the first instalment of the novel, and every Wednesday and Sunday for the rest of November for more chapters!
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