So November is coming around rather soon...anyone thinking of participating in this crazy excuse for becoming a social recluse?
If you haven't heard of it before, NaNoWriMo involves writing a fifty thousand word novel in November. It's simple really, just type 1667 words per day for thirty days, and you'll have finished your first novel.
I've done it the past three years (completed past two) and recommend it to anyone who enjoys writing. It is a really good way to force yourself to write and greatly improve your writing skills.
personally I tried this last year. I got the 50,000 words then thing is, It made no sense. It was like stupidly confusing. I wrote it and I STILL don't know what the plot is. But it is 50,000 words, just senseless words.
Alright, I'm in. And here I was considering not doing it because I have to write a research paper this month. Strop, you are an inspiration to us all.
Time for: Help Xzeno pick a novel in the next few hours! Idea 1: Reattempt The Loner, last year's project. I never started, but I'm still in love with the idea.
Idea 2: The American Dreamer is slated to be 50,000 words of a teenager whining until she gets her way. IT'S CALLED LITERARY FICTION AND IT WORKED FOR JAMES JOYCE. The plot goes kinda like this: Teenage girl is infatuated. She does nothing about this. Then, against all odds and through no effort of hers, the object of her desires returns her affection. Skip a few years. Domestic bliss. Roll credits. The reader is meant to be left with the same feeling of emptiness the characters experience, but the reader is to glean that it is not desirable.
I'll do the twilight parody. It seems fun, "I stroked his sparkling skin in the sunlight, as a giant wolf walked around in the background, with an evil look in his eye" Hows that for a parody, eh?
Alright, I'm in. And here I was considering not doing it because I have to write a research paper this month. Strop, you are an inspiration to us all.
lol, I also have that paper to finish... fantastic. 13 hours in and so far I haven't done very much... and I'm going to a house warming and stuff.
The reader is meant to be left with the same feeling of emptiness the characters experience, but the reader is to glean that it is not desirable.
You know what will happen to your audience right? The people you actually want to read it will want their two hours back. The people you don't want reading it will fangasm a la Twilight.
And you will have screwed yourself over with the literary beanpole. Yeah I used to play with subversive literary ideas, until I was told to imagine how I'd feel as a reader reading that fiction. How would I even feel about picking up the book? What's gonna make me read on after that? There's a reason James Joyce is studied more than it is read haha. I tried reading it, but then I realised I was going to really have to buff up on my classics mythology, at which point I said "okay no."
And you will have screwed yourself over with the literary beanpole.
It's hard for me to gauge that sort of thing. Other people view 300 pages of teenagers whining as hell. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is my second favorite novel of all time. And brushing up on classics isn't a chore, because I'm a huge fan of the Homeric epics, and read large portions of the Aeneid in Latin, as well as the whole thing in English.
But I do appreciate readability. I wouldn't read my ****ty book if I weren't the one writing it, and I like that sort of thing. The Loner, if I may praise myself, sounds exciting and original. Something I want to write, and something I think people will want to read.
On this note, we know what Strop and I are writing, at least those of us who have been here a long time and never forget anything, so what's everyone else working on?
Other people view 300 pages of teenagers whining as hell. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is my second favorite novel of all time.
If a book is successful, a person who likes a book belongs to its target audience. In your case, I have actually thought of the very same concept that you're toying with right now, in that attempt to subvert the tenets of fiction itself. And the reason I dropped it was because I was terrified that the very emptyheaded people that I was taking a jab at wouldn't get it and would respond with OH MY GOD THE BEST.
Of course, that in itself could provide you some amusement if that's what you wanted to achieve, but you run the high risk of being completely misunderstood and your credibility as a writer horribly marred. Which could also provide you with some amusement if that's what you're after but...
