The Road Before Me

Greetings. I will be a participant in this year’s National Novel Writing Month and in a fit of over-ambitious creativity I’ve decided that in addition to actually writing my novel, I am going to write this log about writing my novel. This way, people other than my fellow participants can follow along with my progress.

For those of you that don’t know, the basics of NaNoWriMo are as follows: Starting on 1 November participants begin writing a novel. Typical things that writers focus on like plot progression, character development and intriguing settings are not in focus here. They are, in fact, mostly irrelevant. The only measure of success for NaNoWriMo is completion of a 50,000 word manuscript by midnight on 30 November. If you upload and have officially counted your 50,000 word novel by the end of the month, you win! If not, you don’t. There are no prizes, no publication opportunities and no expectations. There is only writing. The focus of the organizers is on getting people in our hyper-busy, über-connected modern civilization to take some time out for simple creativity.

I did NaNoWriMo last year, but I only managed 12,000 or so words. I was attempting a historical fiction set on Sri Lanka between the years 1948 and 1983 that dealt with two families on opposite sides of the political strife that has plagued that island. Basically, I was attempting a James Michner style, multi-generational epic. Since I started without knowing much more then that Sri Lanka is an island plagued by political strife, I was constantly finding myself bogged down in finding the answers to pressing questions like “what kind of animals are on the island?,” “did the British consulate have a large front porch?,” and “are there plantations on the east coast?” Suffice it to say I learned a lot more about Sri Lanka, but didn’t quite finish the novel.

This year I am trying something that (I hope) won’t get me so bogged down. I am going to write I science fiction novel. Not only that, but a science fiction novel based on a film franchise! This is no tabula rasa. I have a wealth of pre-established main characters, archetypal supporting characters, and plenty of loose threads left behind by the canon to draw upon. Plus sci-fi, generally, is highly malleable. Just about anything I want to happen can happen, no matter whether or not there have been any prior hints about it in the canon. I think this year I will totally win!

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead…