Sunday, October 10, 2010

Pre-NaNophobia

I'm officially trademarking this disease.

Some people have already outlined their NaNo novels. They know every inch of their novel and they are dying to start writing.

That, unfortunately, is not my case.

As the day approaches, I get more and more freaked out. I get like a gazillion ideas in my head but none of them seem to stick. This is an example of my usual thought process:


Idea>Excitement>Outlining>Confusion>Stress>"This sucks."

Also, I've noticed I use the word 'suck' a lot. I'm going to try my hardest to keep it to a minimum.

Maybe.

So far I've thought up of about 20 ideas, none of which seem to work. Which is why usually, the very last idea, the idea I get the morning before NaNo, is the one I stick with.

Last year's idea (which produced PAPER ANGELS) revolved around the name of the main character, Hara. I wrote a three page synopsis of the story and ended up deviating little from it. It was the best NaNo novel I've ever written.

Because, if you read my About Me page, you'll notice that every other idea I had, sucked--I mean, failed.

Actually, the thought process goes:

Idea>Excitement>Outlining>Procastination>Confusion>Stress>Fail.

Yeah, that's more like it.

All I've got is a basic idea of a story and I wouldn't be surprised if I change it in a couple hours.

God, does it ever end?

I guess that's something we writers have to live with.

Until then,
-Patricia