T'was the Night Before NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo.org

As my fellow writing buddies have been saying: it is NaNoEve. October 31st means Halloween for most people, but while they are celebrating ghosts and ghouls and tricks or treats, we are all anxiously awaiting the kickoff for a month filled with literary abandon.

I've always called National Novel Writing Month the Christmas for writers, so NaNoEve is wholly appropriate.

It's coming, my friends. My seventh year attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.

Let the madness commence.

Three Days to Spare

Photo compliments of Steven Lundberg

I am slowly releasing my death grip on Monsters of Lawrence. I have been obsessively thinking about all of the editing that it needs: all of the places it makes no sense, where the characters act out of character, what I could change to make the story more powerful. Have I reached the beating a dead horse to death stage? Maybe. Probably.

It's been difficult to get excited about NaNoWriMo when all I can think about is Monsters.

Although thinking about monsters in a more general sense has sparked a brilliant story idea. One I am super excited about. One I am going to use as my novel for November. Three days to spare! Phew. Cutting it close this year.

This will make the third idea I've tossed around and thought I wanted to use. It's safe to say that this is the one I'm sticking with, though. I am notorious for waffling up until the last minute when it comes to ideas for NaNo, but lightning always seems to strike a few days before the event, and all doubt is erased.

All doubt has been erased.

And you will totally see why when I explain my idea.

The premise: an online dating service for demons.

Ok, so maybe I am a bit bitter about my online dating experiences. And I was thinking about dating this morning. And about demons. And the two sort of coalesced in my mind and I started to laugh. Online dating for demons? Surely this idea has been done! Still, I kept giggling and kept picturing what these demon profiles would look like. The thought of demons dating is a pretty ridiculous thought to begin with, but throw in the Match.com designed specifically for them?

Tell me that's not brilliant.

And after a quick search on both Amazon and Google, there doesn't appear to be any prominent books based around this idea.

Which actually makes me worry. Maybe this isn't such a brilliant idea after all? I mean, come on, everything has already been done. I know I'm not that original. Maybe someone tried it and it totally bombed. Although I'm sure buried in some paranormal romance or urban fantasy novel, there is an online dating service for demons. And I really want to read it.

One way or another, it doesn't matter. Lightning struck, and I am writing this story. Already I have characters waving at me, telling me how they fit into this story. I have a villain (who thinks he's a good guy), and a love story (which, of course, I have to have if it's about online dating), and a whole realm of character possibilities from the demon/monster world.

I just have to decide how serious or ludicrous the tone of this story is going to be. The love story is already turning slightly tragic in my mind, and there are some other really tragic things going on, but, I mean, really: it's online dating. That whole concept is just tragically funny. Everybody seems to have a good online dating story.

So this is a call to my readers. I need your help! Tell me your best funny/horrific/amazing online dating stories. I need material for my book.

Ok, November. I am ready for you now. Bring it on, NaNoWriMo.

The Zero Draft

As an aspiring writer, I absorb as much advice about writing from other writers and editors as I can. It's interesting to get all of the different perspectives, and all too often I find myself laughing and nodding understandingly in response to their anecdotes.

It helps me affirm that I am, in fact, a writer. Yes, I need this affirmation often. Regardless of how many times I actually come to this conclusion, I still sometimes have my doubts.

But not today.

I finished Monsters of Lawrence last night.

When I say finished, what I actually mean is that it is written from start to finish. All of the gaping holes between floating scenes have been filled in. It is a long way from being done. The sheer amount of rewriting it needs makes me wonder if I can even call it a first draft.

Don't get me wrong, I am elated. There was shrieking and laughing and a little bit of fist pumping when I finished that last connecting scene. I finished writing my first full length novel!

But it is what Chuck Wendig calls a Zero Draft. A hot mess written under the pressure of NaNoWriMo (in this case, Camp NaNoWriMo). It's  more like a gigantic, 107k word detailed outline than a cohesive story. I actually kind of like thinking of it that way. It has absolutely no obligation to be a decent novel until it has achieved First Draft status.

It won't be seeing First Draft status for awhile. It's time to put it away, let it stew in the back of my mind while I focus on my next big noveling project.

Because, yes: I finished this NaNo novel just in time to start my next one.

Hopefully by the end of this year I will have two Zero Draft novels that I can work on cleaning up in 2012, in addition to my Sally Prescott short. This year was my year to create, and next year will be my year to edit.

Although don't get me wrong: I still plan on writing. I'm still working on my five year plan, so I'm not sure yet what my writing goals will be for next year. But I'll let you know. I figure when I'm making New Years Resolutions for next year will be a good time to plot all of that out.

Haha. I said plot.

That being said: I have absolutely no plot in mind for next month. I have a world and a couple of characters floating around, but I'm not even convinced I want to use them yet. There are five days and eight hours until NaNoWriMo begins. Looks like I'm flying by the seat of my pants this year, because the last thing I want to do for the next five days is think about writing at all.

I need a vacation. I've been living, breathing, dreaming, and writing Monsters of Lawrence for the last three months now. My brain might explode if I don't take a break.

But I did it! I finished it before November 1st! I am pretty awesome.