Oct 1, 2008

Third Time's A Charm

I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year. I tried back in 2005 and 2006, failed both times. In 2005 I tried a fantasy plot that basically went "a young couple falls in love... insert angry deity". Didn't get very far with it; I wrote very seat-of-my-pants and didn't even know how the story was supposed to end.

In 2006 I switched to urban sci-fi. It was about a woman living in the near-distant future where government sponsored super-soldiers had revolted against their handlers and planned on enslaving regular people. And the super-soldier that was leading the attack was the woman's younger sister. I got a lot further with that story than the previous year (almost 10,000 words) but again I had no idea how the story was going to end. Mostly though... I was bored of my story. Bored of writing it, bored of the characters, bored of the setting, bored of it all. My patience for writing one piece over an extended period of time is very limited, you see. It's my fatal flaw.

After my two miserable failures I decided that NaNo was not for me and abstained in 2007. I have no idea why I've changed my mind this year. Maybe because I'm not currently working and the thought of having so much extra time is increasing my confidence.

I figured that I ought to do something different this year so I'm outlining my entire story, chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Hopefully it will help. At least I'll have a plan and I'll know how the story ends. And thus far it looks like I'll be able to surpass the required 50,000 if things work out properly. My story this year will be historical fiction, taking place in 14th century India. I know I'll eventually get bored so I'm trying to figure out beforehand how I can alleviate that. I really want to win for once.

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