NaNo '10

There are two weeks to go until NaNoWriMo 2010, and I still don't know if I'll definitely be taking part. It would mean writing a lot of college stuff over the midterm break, which I am more than happy to do, and using lunch times that would otherwise go wasted on writing the novel and juggling all my other college work. It would mean using every last available minute writing the book, in between the nights out I am determined not to miss and the teaching practice material I have to put together... like 30 lessons and three schemes of work...

Aside from the whole 'having another first draft' thing, I have another motive for taking part - I need to get the voice of the narrator in Meet Sam back into my head, and the only way to do that is to write the second book in the trilogy, Love, Sam. So between now and November 1st I need to plot that book and write two essays of 1500-2000 words and two sets of tutorial work... fun times!

It can be done, though. I get off college at half four on Mondays. I can write for an hour or two without jeopardising my college work. On Tuesdays, I'm in until half five. Sometimes later. The nights are touch-and-go. I have a long lunch, though, so I could write then. Wednesdays I'm off at half four again, with a long lunch, too, and no one goes out on a Wednesday. Thursdays are strange: every second week I get off at half two, while the other weeks I get off at half four. I can write on the half two days, but the nights out are always on Thursdays. Fridays are touch-and-go; I don't know, as of yet, whether or not I have work every Friday after college. I get off at twelve, though, so I could spend time writing then - a few hours' work and a few thousand words. Saturdays I work, usually for six hours. I also do my tutorial work on Saturdays... But that shouldn't stop me doing work on the novel. Sundays I have four to six hours, too, in work, and again I can do work before and after.

However, I have to do a lot of reading for college, too. I need to read a tragic play and write an essay on it, and write a coursework journal based on the films we watch on the late Tuesdays. I have three essays due in in November - one of which I would want to write most of during the October break - and I have four tutorials to prepare work for during the month, too. And, again, my schemes of work. Fun... I need to do work for those, too. I need to read for three essays and three schemes of work. It may kill me.

But what about the book? Okay, if I use Write or Die I can get about 400 words done every ten minutes. So in an hour I can get - roughly - 2400 words done. If I wrote for one hour - like this - every day in November, I would get 72000 words done in the month. This is more than enough. I will most likely write less. I imagine it will turn out closer to 55000 words, because even if I wrote like this all the time, I would not write every day.

Do I have a plot..? Not exactly. I have a general idea but nothing too substantial. Which is bad, for me. For a book of this length and for such a short period of high-stress time, I need a plan. I will probably work on this during the week - likely before my next drama workshop. I have my characters already, anyway. I have written about them on this blog, previously. I can come up with a story that fits them all in that doesn't avoid the direction I want the book to take. This will, hopefully, have some of the same humour as Meet Sam while also getting down into this really dark level of the human psyche, which was my intention for this book all those months ago when I first thought of it.

I suppose, though, with my idea I have somewhere to aim for. I have thought processes that need to be explored, places that need to be visited narratively, and people that need to influence the mind and emotions of Samuel Emily Richards.

Am I excited? Oh God yes. Lets get ready to WriMo!