Thursday, October 05, 2006

No plot, no problem, no-vember

I am getting so excited about the great nanowrimo experiment of 2006. I just got my copy of No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty who started Nanowrimo in 1999. I just started reading it after class, and it's fabulous. The whole premise behind Nanowrimo is that a novel written with a strict deadline creates a sort of psychological freedom... As a writer, I play these games with myself all the time. Because who really cares if I finish the next book? Certainly not the publishing companies. Even my agent isn't tapping his fingers impatiently. they all have bigger fish to fry. But it matters to me. I need to write the next book. Baty says, "A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most ass-kicking form." And I need a big kick in the ass.

I have this notion that I'm going to wake up at 4:30 every morning to work. (I actually having been getting up pre-dawn for school two days a week, and I find that I am both spunky and inspired after the initial hell of pulling myself out of the sheets.) I imagine a quiet house, a cup of coffee, two and a half hours of time to tap-a-tap-tap my heart out. I think preparation is key...and I've been taking notes, plotting and planning, imagining without letting myself write a single word. I'm hoping the story will explode out of me by the time I sit down to write. (Optimism, optimism.)

Anybody want to join me? Come on, let's write a book next month. It'll be fun.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

A book in a month? I'm game.

T. Greenwood said...

Hi Michael...

I remember you from SD...the SoCal Writers' Conference and from the theatre "scene." I read your blog and see you're moving away from books?? Maybe a little nano might pull you back??!!

Unknown said...

Hi....

I have the keynote dinner speech at the SCWC in Palm Springs last weekend and your name came up for some reason, so I ran a search and found this blog.

I'm still in theater, barely.

With 43 books out now, I lost interest. But there are still books -- some due on deadline, some more to sell, but film and TV has more money.

I'll never stop writing books...just not as many. I'll write TV shows. ;)