For me, for my 8th graders, and for a growing (but still esoteric) number of weirdos out there in the webby world of wacky, October 31 signifies the last gulp of air we'll have before embarking upon the wild and woolly and you've-got-to-be-nuts-to-try-it journey known by those in the know as NaNoWriMo.
This will be my fourth year participating in the international event humbly calling itself National Novel Writing Month. And it's the third year I've dragged along my middle schoolers, some grumbling, some cheering.
Today we spent part of the class period signing into (or for the newbies, signing up for) our accounts on the fantastically designed, awfully fun Young Writers' Program NaNoWriMo site. As we tooled around the site and checked out the forums (where did those plot bunnies go?), my virtual classroom, and how to become each others' writing buddies, we also chatted about our game plans. We've got some horror, some romance, and quite a bit of comedy flitting about the imaginations of my would-be, soon-to-be, or once-again novelists. A few have so many ideas they don't know where to start. One will be writing a series of short stories he'll try to string together a la Bradbury's Illustrated Man.
For the first time, I came to October 31 with absolutely no idea about what I'd be writing. Usually I have some notion. My first year, I wrote a (terrible) sequel to David and the Phoenix. The next year I wrote a (terrible) government-conspiracy-theory thing about some vaccination program gone horribly awry. And last year I wrote a (terrible and unthrilling) thriller about what would happen if a computer virus wiped out all the world's electronic banking records. The good news each year is that I've hit my 50,000 word count goal (my eighth graders shoot for 8000 words) and I've usually created at least a few strong and interesting characters. The bad news each year is that my (terrible) novels, though at their 50,000 word count goal are never finished-- and that's usually because I have no real plan, I get lost, and I can't think of a good ending.
The trick would be to at least think about planning out the novel. At least have an ending in mind. (Improv is great- improvising a novel is not so great.) And this year I didn't even have a beginning in mind!
Until my last class today when I confessed my lack of inspiration to my students. The barrage of ideas that flowed toward me would have stunned Shakespeare. Such creativity! And they were undaunted as I fended off some ideas, "Yeah, that's cute, but I want something a little more thoughtful"... and, "No, I'm not going for comedy..." Little by little they, like a fantastic collective author's therapist, honed in on something I kinda love.
You'll have to tune in for updates on my students' work and on my (terrible) fifth novel. Who knows. Maybe I'll even finish this time. One can dream, can't one?
Anyway, wish us luck!
2 comments:
Right there with you! I think this year is my least-planned novel but my second most-interesting concept. We'll see how it goes.
I purchased a lap-desk for the bed today from BB&B because I cannot handle one more year of sitting in the dining room on uncomfortable chairs with headphones on trying to block out the sounds of a very loud television (my husband apparently has the hearing of a 77 year old!) Hopefully that will go well ... if not, I'm sure I can sell it to some college student :)
My sis printed out all my blog posts and guess what? We've BOTH written novels!! (though unfinished...) Point is, maybe just write without the intent to write A NOVEL, but just to tell a story...that happens to be as long as a novel. You've done it before...
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