Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Nanowrimo- 30 days of literary abandon

November is "National Novel Writing Month". It's a writer challenge that started in America, but it's now pretty much international. The challenge: write 50, 000 words in the 30 days of November. If you want to check it out, the website is www.nanowrimo.org!

I participated and won last year. Since the challenge does not specify that you have to finish the novel in November, I took the rest of the year to write the remaining 2 chapters. That's because I'm a chronic procrastinator and I lose motivation easily. If it wasn't for Nano, I probably wouldn't ever be able to complete a novel to begin with!

Last year, I wrote a novel which, up to this point, I can't even categorise. I wonder if it's so all-over-the-place because I'm scatterbrained, or if it's because it's a true-to-life story. Either way, it probably needs a lot of work before I can sell it, and I intend to sell it.

Last year's story was about a promiscuous girl and her attempt to turn her life around, set against the backdrop of growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. This year, after visiting India, I was inspired to do a story about discrimination. I've gone back and forth as to whether it should be racial or religious discrimination, and even though, I've started writing, this and many other deatils, haven't been quite worked out. But God is still playing a major role in this effort, so I'm going to give him creative authority over it, and go where he pulls me.

Literary abandon, here I come.

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