NaNo Here We Come! 2011 starts in just 2 weeks

Hooray, hooray. Last year, I got overexcited at the start, so I kind of burnt myself out around 38K words and hit a writer's block. Doh! I managed just under 43K, and the story was more or less complete, but it needed a few thousand more both to "win" and to finish the story. I'm in the process of getting around to re-writing it. (That is, a few people have read it and now I want to hack it down to half the length and turn it into a much tighter novella).

I'm torn between doing a rewrite of last year's novel (which is, technically, cheating) plus either another novella or a bunch of short stories, and a few different novel ideas. So...I'm asking for help from the groups. I know that, as writers, we're all readers first.

If these were the "blurbs," or descriptions, which one would you want to read?

1) A college boy goes to a man-made island resort for a tropical fantasy vacation. At first it's paradise, but he soon realizes all is not as it seems. The Handmaid's Tale meets the Stepford Wives.

2) A detective solves a case through clues from the client's dreams. Weird imagery and "did it happen" speculation, above "who and why" the crime happened. Sort of The Cell meets The Lovely Bones meets investigative procedural.

3) A young girl tries to find out why her sister committed suicide 20 years ago, as a teenager. Family drama/mystery, sort of Anne Marie MacDonald territory (think The Way the Crow Flies, and if you haven't read it, highly recommended).

4) Two seemingly unrelated stories about a young woman who commits suicide and a young man who falls in love. They met just once. Her story moves backward and his moves forward, until they converge at the point where they "met" in a car crash, ten or 15 years ago. That point determined the rest of both of their lives.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your help. :)

Tags: NaNoWriMo, help, novel, writing

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Selene MacLeod on October 22, 2011 at 8:58pm

Well, I asked the group for advice. It's not like the NaNo Police are going to come knocking down my door. :) And the 4s have it--made my outline today. Yay!

As for rewriting last year's novel, it needs a heavy rewrite, and I'd like to rework it into a novella, for submission. So at least half of what I wrote initially either has to cut or be entirely rewritten. While not "new," it's not going to be anything like the original work when I'm done with it.

Permalink Reply by Lucy Anne Smith on October 22, 2011 at 10:44am

This will be my second nano, and I love it every year. It's not classed as cheating unless you start before the 1st of Nov. I would do the 4th story. It gives you the space to do more. It, also, sounds brilliant. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Sherrie McCarthy on October 26, 2011 at 10:57am

My Nanowrimo from last year is almost finished now! If you get a novel finished in November its winning no matter when you start it! For that matter if you get a novel finished at any point in your life it is winning. the best part about NANOWRIMO is all the great energy and support. The only competition is yourself and pitting yourself against a deadline.

Super glad the 4 won!!!! :-)

Permalink Reply by Kasey Arnold-Ince on October 31, 2012 at 7:09pm

Thanks, Selene, for opening up possiblities to us (heck, I like 'em all, but I'd probably be more attracted as a reader to #1 or #4). This is my first NaNoWriMo, and it comes at a very busy time for me in terms of client work--which is a blessing, as generally November and December are dead, and I'm eating beans and rice (and sometimes pictures of beans and rice).

So I gave myself permission to do this for the participation, rather than the win--kind of like people running a half-marathon rather than the full 26 miles. I'm going for a half NaNo, and I'm going to use a lot of my time to build a detailed outline of my book (Hello, Brooke Warner, Outline Queen!), which consists of a series of connected short stories. And heck, whatever I write, it's more than I would have written this busy month w/o NaNoWriMo ...

I think the point is to get writing, get that book (short story, novella, whatever) on paper!