GothNoWriMo is creeping up on us.....

GothNoWriMo, or Gothic Novel Writing Month, starts the first of October. It's dedicated to the writing of Gothic/Horror/Creepy or Vampire-related fiction. The related message boards are at: http://gothnowrimo.proboards.com/index.cgi?

I wasn't planning on participating. I wasn't planning on participating in any more WriMos. In fact, I had been in the process of recognizing the unpleasant fact about my writing--- that since I have never, as yet, finished a novel which I began, that at this point in time it is unlikely that I shall ever have an actual career as a writer. (Or as anything else for that matter. Having Asperger Syndrome sucks.)

But a suitable GothNo idea jumped up and bit me on the rear echelons. It's set in my own private fantasy world, Erileth, in the Northern Quintile of the Important Continent. It features the daughter of a human man and a shape-shifting 구미호 (gumiho, or nine-tailed fox).

I don't know much about the story yet except that the daughter doesn't know much about her non-human heritage but discovers it in the course of the story. I've decided not to do much in the way of pre-planning.

I've set a word-count goal of 25000 words--- one half of the NaNoWriMo goal in other words. Which means either the story will be half done or less, or else it will be more of a novella than a novel. I don't care at this point. Taking these things seriously will just wake up my failure-jinx and I want to leave him out of it this October.

So, that's what I'm doing for GothNo. Anyone out there doing GothNo? Or NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)? Let me know the gory details!

Oh, No, it's Nanowrimo!!!

Ok, it's November. It's been November for a couple of days now. I've even flipped over the page of my calendar to November already. So why wasn't I aware until just now that National Novel Writing Month, AKA Nanowrimo, had started.

I'm going to do it, of course. I've never finished a nanowrimo, but during my first Nano, I did get saved.

It happened like this. I was a Norse Pagan and had been one for over a decade. I'd even edited a self-published Norse Pagan magazine until my stalker ruined that for me.

I was working at my Nano novel and had decided to pray about it. The question, as a Pagan, was which God to pray to--- Odin, Thor, Freya? As a Pagan I did not disbelieve in the God of Christianity, I just believed that He was just one tribal/ethnic God among many.

On impulse I decided to pray to the Christian God--- I gave Him a challenge. If He would give me measurable help with my novel, I would become a Christian.

I didn't really expect any help. And I didn't finish my Nanowrimo novel that year. But I did complete over 120 pages, which came out to 50 pages more than my previous best on any one writing project. And so I became a Christian.

I'm glad I did even though it meant I had to commit to a life of chastity because of my new faith, rather than being chaste in a unplanned way because of my unattractiveness.

So, participating in Nano is important to me even if I don't win. My nickname on the Nano site is 'ilsabein'. If you are participating in Nano, look me up!

Now, I must get to work naming the characters in my story (they are a family of freak show performers) and then I must start my first chapter. I have no idea where the story is going. But that's all right.

Warning: NaNoWriMo is coming!

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is almost upon us. Run! Hide! Or you may get caught up in the madness.

NaNoWriMo, for the happily clueless, is an international event where nerds get together in an attempt to write a 50000 word novel in one month. Massive caffeine intake is required, actual writing is optional. (Links to NaNo and other WriMos are somewhere in the sidebar.)

I've been doing a lot of Wrimos this year, from JanNoWriMo in January, to JulNoWriMo and AugNoWriMo, and at last, GothNoWriMo in October. It seems like I've written fewer words each WriMo, and I'm pretty WriMoed out.

So this November I've decided to do something else goofy. I'm working on not one, but two novels. One is a fantasy called Among the Lost which is about street urchins in a Dickensian environment and vampires. The other is a science fiction novel called Gems of Kolbe featuring soil-building pioneers on the terraformed world of Kolbe.

I've put up two word count meters for the novels above. They are located below the Technorati widget and before the social newt-working.

The idea is this: I work each day a little on each novel. About once a week or so I'll take the word count and put it up on the meters. It's going to be kind of like a race, only there's no prize since I don't know how to give a prize to an unpublished novel.

Since I set my word count goal at twice the sacred 50000 of NaNo, and I'm doing two, I'd say I deserve at least four months to work on it.

So--- those are my plans. If any writers out there have plans for doing or not doing NaNoWriMo, drop me a comment.

GothNoWriMo--- the spookier writing month

For fans of NaNoWriMo and the other WriMos: now there is GothNoWriMo, Gothic Novel Writing Month in October. Gotta love that!