Moving On...

Now that I've forgotten what else I'd wanted to say about NaNo style pro's and con's, let's move on, shall we?  The laundry is in, and I have a good 20 minutes before I have to go down and change it over to the dryers.  ;)

The question now is, would I ever go and participate in NaNo again, now that I've done it once?

The short answer is:  Yes, absolutely!

The longer answer is:  It depends...

First and foremost, it really depends on whether or not I have something I want to write about...and whether or not I have it around the middle to end of October.  If I am going to throw caution (and editing) to the wind, and just write as much and as quickly as I can, I want to at least have a general plan mapped out in my brain for where I want to start, and where I sort of hope to end up.  I've learned about how there are MANY surprises along the way, so I am not even going to pretend to think I will know or be able to control the entire project from start to finish.  But I at least want to have an idea.

I knew with Carving The Light who the characters were...I had to give them names and descriptions to flesh them out, but as basic people, I knew them.  I knew the general sense of the story we were going to tell together.  I knew more or less where I intended to end up.  I didn't have a title.  And I wasn't always sure which plot points were going to be revealed and when.  And I certainly had no idea that there were parts of the journey that would come as a surprise even to me.  But I wasn't too far into it when I knew what the last line would be.  And I used that as my guidepost to keep me on the trail, knowing that even though I couldn't see everything that would happen in between, I did, at least, know where I was going; where the girls were taking me, and where we would all end up.

It is so hot in here I can barely think.  Good grief.

So yes, I would do NaNo again.  But I'd need to have an idea of where I thought the month would be taking me.  I am known to not finish what I start, and if I went through all of that, only to see my progress graph fall behind and short of the mark, I'd be...

...well...it wouldn't be good.

I am all for spontaneous creativity, but I don't think I would do well if I started out completely in that vein.  I don't need to know everything and have it all worked out, then manipulate and bend it all to my original will.  But I do need to have an idea...one that can change and grow and fluctuate over those mad 30 days in November, to be sure.  But it needs to be a little more than just a seed.  A seed is a great start, and many writers can turn it into full-blown fruit-brearing trees.  But I don't think I'm that person...I need more of a sapling...one that at least lets me know what kind of tree I'm trying to grow.

Because once I have that, there will no stopping me.

At least...not anymore.  ;)