Here's the thing: I'm sick of getting stuck in the middle of stories, or writing a few scenes and going back again to thinking about the story. I've had enough of not completing what I've started. But while NaNoWriMo is all well and good, I feel it's too much. 1667 words a day is a lot, day after day, and after a certain point I find myself sacrificing quality for quantity, which isn't good. And then, after 30 days of being tired, pushing myself too far, writing poorly in both fiction and the assignments I've had to do, I end up with a half-complete novel with massive gaps in it because I hit a wall and still needed the words.
So this is what I'm going to do: starting tomorrow, which actually is in about 15 minutes, I'm going to try to write a novel in 100 days. This should take me roughly to the end of September, which is also when I stop being a student. Also in that time I'll need to research and write a 15000 word dissertation, spend a week digging at an iron age hill fort, and find a job for next year, but I should have sufficient time in the evenings and weekends to write.
I don't have a concrete plan. I'm working on a novel I barely planned when I first attempted it in November last year for NaNoWriMo, and I only got 5000 words into it then. Since then I've paid almost no attention to it, and even gave it up for salvage, stealing one of the characters to use in something else (which also ended up in the "I'll deal with it later" pile). I've got a notes file which basically outlines the world and the characters, not even the overall plot. My notes are arranged under subjects including "themes I want to include", "plotlines I want to include", "religion" (a key part of the story), "factions" (including two monarchist factions, one oligarchic faction, a monarchist neighbouring country, and a group of escaped slaves, criminals and homeless debtors), and "characters" (giving about three sentences for each, with who they are, their outlook and demeanor, what they want, what they learn, and what faction they most identify with).
So that's it. I don't have a plot, beyond a vague idea in my head losely based upon what I was doing last year. I plan to see how things go, how characters change what I had previously planned. I'm going to record how my writing goes, what difficulties I face, how my life impacts it and is impacted by it, probably once or twice a week. And I'm going to write for 100 days and see what comes of it.
I'll be recording all this over on my LJ, where I have also posted all of the above, and I welcome anyone else who wishes to join me in this challenge, particularly if you feel the same way about never completing stuff. The goal is a complete novel in 100 days, however long that might be - assuming about 100,000 words, fairly standard for a debut fantasy novel, that's 1000 words a day.
So this is what I'm going to do: starting tomorrow, which actually is in about 15 minutes, I'm going to try to write a novel in 100 days. This should take me roughly to the end of September, which is also when I stop being a student. Also in that time I'll need to research and write a 15000 word dissertation, spend a week digging at an iron age hill fort, and find a job for next year, but I should have sufficient time in the evenings and weekends to write.
I don't have a concrete plan. I'm working on a novel I barely planned when I first attempted it in November last year for NaNoWriMo, and I only got 5000 words into it then. Since then I've paid almost no attention to it, and even gave it up for salvage, stealing one of the characters to use in something else (which also ended up in the "I'll deal with it later" pile). I've got a notes file which basically outlines the world and the characters, not even the overall plot. My notes are arranged under subjects including "themes I want to include", "plotlines I want to include", "religion" (a key part of the story), "factions" (including two monarchist factions, one oligarchic faction, a monarchist neighbouring country, and a group of escaped slaves, criminals and homeless debtors), and "characters" (giving about three sentences for each, with who they are, their outlook and demeanor, what they want, what they learn, and what faction they most identify with).
So that's it. I don't have a plot, beyond a vague idea in my head losely based upon what I was doing last year. I plan to see how things go, how characters change what I had previously planned. I'm going to record how my writing goes, what difficulties I face, how my life impacts it and is impacted by it, probably once or twice a week. And I'm going to write for 100 days and see what comes of it.
I'll be recording all this over on my LJ, where I have also posted all of the above, and I welcome anyone else who wishes to join me in this challenge, particularly if you feel the same way about never completing stuff. The goal is a complete novel in 100 days, however long that might be - assuming about 100,000 words, fairly standard for a debut fantasy novel, that's 1000 words a day.