Brass Tacks

Alright, so in case you're just joining us, I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month or, cringe, NaNoWriMo.

I can't decide what I should start brainstorming about or preparing for or training for or what. Besides preparing for writing a novel in a month- I get that part.

The whole 50,000 words in a month thing isn't a great worry of mine. I was telling Annie and Aubrey last night that I can write thousands of words of dribble for many days in a row, where it gets hard for me is the linear nature of a novel- needing all those thousands of words to be about ONE story.

On top of that, I don't know what I should write about in terms of plot. Do I choose something that I know a lot about and love, like science-fiction or action? Or do I choose something that is a bit more foreign to me, like chick-lit, or young-adult drama? I guess this is one of those times where it probably isn't a good idea to try to learn the quirks of a new genre.

It's not that I want to have a plot all laid out and prepared when November 1st comes around, I just want to have a road map to get me through the month. So when I have a job to do and I have to explain that I'm busy writing a novel on a deadline, people will take pause before they fire me. Just having an IDEA is better than starting out with nothing. I've always found that when recording anything, let's say a short film, that those first takes at the beginning of the day, are always useless and never as creative and awesome as the ones toward the end of the day when everyone is warmed up and in the zone. Meaning that if I don't have an idea when I start, the odds are slim that I'll come up with something great in those crucial first day- something that I'll be happy to continue writing about the rest of the month.

(deep breath)

Alright people, any ideas? Or are you all saving them for your own month-novels? (are those called NaNos?)