Taking The Plunge
If you’ve been paying attention while milling about aimlessly within the ranks of the Rants Army® out there, you know by now I’ve been doing some writing. To you all here in blogland, this has manifested itself primarily in my occasional Flash Fiction attempts (check them out). The feedback has been positive and steady, and I truly appreciate it.
What you might not know is that over here behind this curtain… no, wait. NO! DON’T LOOK THERE… here, this one… I’ve been pecking away at one of several keyboards in an honest attempt at writing. While I consider much of my effort to be the equivalent of an epileptic, blind baby doing finger painting, some good and trusted friends and family have told me that with more work and bribes, I have some hope of publication someday.
Given all that, I decided to try something bold. If you bother to look at my homepage here (lazy folk: link here), you’ll notice a new sidebar widget – the National Novel Writing Month tracker graphic. Yes, Rants Army®, I’m taking the plunge and going for it. If you’re curious, here’s the link to NaNoWriMo. Said tracker will chart my progress.
Like the flash fiction, there are rules. The first rule is that you register for free. I’m all about free shit. Second, you put a digital stake in the ground and say, “I’m writing a book and shit.” From there, the month of November is dedicated to producing a novel-length work. Participants have thirty days to generate 50,000 words of draft copy. In my case, a rough draft. Very, very rough. For those of you who are math challenged, that comes to 1667 words each day for thirty consecutive days. If you’ve really, really tried writing, you know this isn’t always a cake walk.
I’m confident I’ll reach the 50k mark. On good days, I can crank out 2000 words. My personal best to date is 5800, stymied only by this pesky Army that expects me to show up every day and actually do something productive.
Tune in regularly and see how I’m doing.
October 29, 2014 at 09:13
Good going, taking the plunge! Cheering you on from the sidelines!
October 29, 2014 at 09:17
Be ready with a life preserver.
October 29, 2014 at 09:18
Congratulations on taking the plunge. Well begun is half done. 😉
Looking forward to following you on your journey!
October 29, 2014 at 09:29
I’ll try to update everyone.
October 29, 2014 at 09:21
Excellent! Good luck!
October 29, 2014 at 09:30
Thanks, Kayjai!
October 29, 2014 at 09:57
Whoo hoo! Looking forward to reading. I’m sure it will be exciting based on your past works.
October 29, 2014 at 10:09
Those 100-word things? Hm.
October 29, 2014 at 11:08
Hm. Yeah, those 100 word things…they can morph into 1,000 word things. You never know. Good luck.
October 29, 2014 at 12:13
That they can.
October 29, 2014 at 09:59
Good luck, Rants!!
October 29, 2014 at 10:10
Thanks, Scott/TD… there are a few bloggers I’d coerce into this too, and you’re one of them, bud.
October 29, 2014 at 10:11
Ha! I’m working on a novel, but have been for over a year. I don’t have the focus to continue on one story for an entire month. I’m kinda ADD that way.
October 29, 2014 at 10:14
Squirrel!
October 29, 2014 at 10:17
Exactly!!
October 29, 2014 at 10:33
Wait… what?
October 29, 2014 at 11:27
I don’t know. I blinked.
October 29, 2014 at 12:11
😀
October 29, 2014 at 10:06
Cool. Maybe think of it as a digital steak – easier to eat one byte at a time?
The result is bound to be stellar.
Good luck!
October 29, 2014 at 10:10
Mmm… steak.
October 29, 2014 at 11:08
Bacon wrapped…
October 29, 2014 at 12:12
*drools*
October 29, 2014 at 10:41
5,800 words in a day is awesome! With that kind of churning out a story, you won’t have a thing to worry about in NaNoWriMo. I’m excited to be doing it for the first time, and I’m approaching it as tackling at least the daily 1,600. Good luck with your writing!
October 29, 2014 at 10:46
Thanks, AM.
October 29, 2014 at 11:06
I’ve decided to enter NaNoLame-O instead. Their goal is around 500 words and only if you’re up to it. My badge widget is a paper napkin.
Hey…that’s a great idea! I’m gonna make me one of those right now!
October 29, 2014 at 12:12
I smell a whole new website being born…
October 29, 2014 at 12:43
Stay hydrated.
October 29, 2014 at 12:46
Beer.
October 29, 2014 at 12:54
As long as it’s not pumpkin beer.
If you drink that, you’ll end up writing a chick lit classic like “Bridget Jones’ Diaphragm.”
October 29, 2014 at 13:03
This is a military fiction work, so I cannot channel Jodi Picoult or that other arrogant fuckwhistle.
October 29, 2014 at 22:03
Do they have Coors Light there?
October 30, 2014 at 04:16
Oh yeah.
October 29, 2014 at 13:45
I wish I’d said *fuckwhistle.*
But you can be sure I’ll work it into my next blog post.
October 29, 2014 at 14:02
Thank you. My specialty is confabulating the word, “fuck.”
That said, “twatwaffle” is another favorite.
October 29, 2014 at 14:12
My specialty is “douche” with all the carbs.
“Douchewaffle,” “douchepotato,” “douchemuffin.”
October 29, 2014 at 14:20
I’m also expanding into ‘douche’ as well. Douchenozzle?
October 29, 2014 at 17:33
I love “douchecanoe.” My phone is so trained, I type in “do” and it fills in “douchecanoe” automatically.
See? It just did it. Like a boss.
I’m so proud.
October 29, 2014 at 18:41
Rock that shit.
October 29, 2014 at 14:25
You know, I just noticed that the shadow across your eyes in your gravatar kinda looks like a strip of bacon. Mmmm…bacon.
But about the Nanu Nanu challenge…you’ll rock it. I did it last year and finished my 50K by Thanksgiving. It’s less about producing a stellar work and more about the practice and commitment. Write on writer.
October 29, 2014 at 15:15
I agree on the NaNo. My technique is to vomit out a draft and then fix it later during the copyedits.
October 29, 2014 at 16:25
That’s what I did. Spewed forth many words, some coherent. My plan this year is to edit that diarrhea into something solid. (Yes, I took a year break from my novel, but by the end of Nov13 I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore.)
October 29, 2014 at 18:41
I let mine rest a while too.
October 29, 2014 at 14:44
Good luck with your writing and shit. Look forward to following your progress!
October 29, 2014 at 15:15
Thanks and shit!
October 29, 2014 at 17:47
Yoo Can Doo EET!
October 29, 2014 at 18:42
Si, Senora.
October 30, 2014 at 14:11
Best of luck. You’ll do fab. I did this challenge back in 2011 and it kicked my ass. But in a good way.
October 30, 2014 at 15:13
I’ll give it my best.
October 30, 2014 at 20:19
I applaud your decision to join NaNoWriMo this November Rants! I participated last November & accumulated about 37,000 words. I also participated in April “Camp NaNoWriMo” & revised about 12,000 of those words.
Unfortunately, I can’t participate this November because I committed myself to an online university course & then we had life intercede. Hubby’s godmother & second mother decided she wanted her life to end & refused all medical care after dislocating her shoulder & breaking 3 ribs (except comfort care) – the family was all assembled in Wpg. which req. an emergency trip on our part), followed by emergency eye surgery on hubby 2 days after we returned home. So now I am 2 weeks behind in my school work & have to rush to catch up.
Good luck!
October 30, 2014 at 20:55
And so why are you even bothering commenting? Go help out and good luck. By the way, I doubt she’ll die of that.
October 30, 2014 at 23:37
I guess I should have been more clear. I live in Edmonton, driving to Wpg. is 13-14 hrs. each way. We took 5 days so we could spend some time with her. His godmother is 92 years old, half blind, heart condition, etc., etc. Her shoulder joint is so degraded they cannot put the shoulder back in place. The broken ribs caused internal bleeding & because she was on Warfarin she almost bled out, but refused a blood transfusion to extend her life even though her hemoglobin was so low she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. But she’s a feisty old broad & even though she has expressly refused any kind of treatment except pain killers, she still keeps hanging on.
October 31, 2014 at 03:52
Okay that makes sense now. I’m not up on Canadian geography like I am down here.
October 31, 2014 at 13:24
Just got an update from the family, she had a heart attack last night & is receiving upgraded pain meds to keep her comfortable.
In terms of your geography, where could you go if you drove 13 – 14 hours straight, only stopping to fill gas tank?
October 31, 2014 at 14:00
Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia, or New England.
October 31, 2014 at 17:50
So you wouldn’t be able to make it back to Kansas? Sorry, I only have a general idea of where your states are too. I think it would be pretty to drive thru New England in the fall – that’s north of where you are now, right? My daughter used to live in North Carolina & I know they used to drive to Virginia sometimes for weekends.
October 31, 2014 at 18:48
Not in that time. The drive here took about 20 hours total.
November 15, 2014 at 06:40
[…] all out there might recall that I took a step toward writing after several spastic attempts at Flash Fiction as well as the mediocre success of this very blog. […]
January 14, 2015 at 06:02
[…] any rate, waaaaay back at the end of October I posted about deciding to take the National Novel Writing Month challenge. At the time I didn’t […]