Plotting for Nanowrimo? Nah.

Nanowrimo is upon us! And there is a whole hullabulub going on. A hundred thousand people, each aiming to write 50,000 words in a single month.

And meanwhile, I've picked up my book again and written another few thousand words this last week. And then timed myself as to how long it took to write words that had been somewhat in my mind already. About 45 minutes to an hour per thousand words. Of course, they were good words, but still... at that rate, I will need 50 free hours to do Nanowrimo. Two hours per day.

Thats assuming I'll know what to write. And you know what? I don't.

But I have that much time.

I've browsed the forums a bit, and everyone is plotting, character making, delving into what they are going to start doing soon. But I'm not, and I don't think I really will until 10/31/2009. Why?

Several reasons. One is that I cannot start writing yet. If I cannot start the story till 11/01/2009, then even if I come up with something, it won't be on paper. The second is that I work better this way. Come up with an idea, write a bit, sleep on it, write some more. But writing those first few lines are what sets the stones, the foundation for whatever is to come. If they haven't been written, then it's as good as doing nothing. Even character creation or plotting doesn't work for me unless I've written something down.

Come the 1st, I'll have something. The question is, what will it be?

I've been gravitating towards space opera, various sci-fi, another fantasy, a spin-off of my published book, or a high school baseball romance. That last one is Mitsuru Adachi's area, one of my favorite authors to read.

Meanwhile, I've been reading several other books. Sci-fi, action, epics, in the past few weeks. So no matter what I settle on, I'll have a base.

No plot? No worries. I have far more time than two hours per day. I want to write a good book in a months time. Something that will not require endless editing and re-drafting. The goal of the month is simply to get out 50k words. My goal? A novella that is written well, structurally, plot-wise, and of decent length.

And I wholly believe... well, I'll see what happens. Have fun with it!