La Vie Boheme

I hate October

Moderately disappointing day today. The weather is really beating down my motivation. All I want to do is stay curled under blankets and watch TV or read. Fortunately, this weekend is the Minions writer's retreat, and I will be forced (through gentle and mocking peer pressure) to write my ass off. I'm also thinking I can get a little more done tonight after the "Angel" season premiere (yay, Spike!).

In not-so-disappointing news, I sent off "One Song Before I Go" to the Zoetrope All-Story Short Fiction Contest. Winners announced December 1st. Keep your fingers crossed.

This might be a plea for help

I confess. I'm considering NaNoWriMo. Why? I don't know, exactly. Part of me suggests that starting a new novel within three weeks or so of finishing the old one might not be a good idea, but another part of me suggests that it might not be such a bad idea either. It would give me some distraction during the self-imposed six weeks (at least!) I'm going to spend avoiding Exile's Daughter. It would push me a little. The first time I did NaNoWriMo, I hit 50,000, and that was with working full time and going to school part time. I've steadily managed 30,000 words a month since I've been writing full time (granted, I'm hoping to be employed at some point here soon, but...).

Would pushing myself be a good thing? I've proven to myself that I can write a novel. I've proven to myself that I can work consistently and for an extended period of time. What benefit would there be by doing this? The only one I can think of, aside from distracting myself from obsession over Exile, is the camaraderie of the other lunatics doing this. The question is, do I need that? Do I want that?

I think the main reason I want to do it is because of how much fun I had the last two years. Writing The Host was, literally if melodramatically, a life-changing experience. Last year... well... just because I only made it to 25,000 words or so, that doesn't mean I didn't have fun.

I guess the biggest reasons I'm not sure I should do it are strange and a little snobby. First, I'm afraid I'll hurt my writing style somehow by trying to go too fast. That sounds silly now that I've typed it out. Let's just say that Lisa is going through a "I hate my writing" phase lately--it's probably related to that. Second, and this is the snobby reason, it's not 'professional'. Gah, that sounds lame too. Somehow part of my brain is insisting that I've "outgrown" NaNoWriMo--which is crap.

I dunno. I'm planning on starting another novel before the year is out anyway, why not do it this way and get the first half or so out of the way in November?

Still thinking about this one.