Have spent much of today panicking about having no plot, characters or even a genre for NaNoWriMo which starts tomorrow, so have just been browsing the forums hoping for an abandoned plot bunny. Didn’t find one yet (not ideally timed maintenance!) but I did discover there is a Second Life NaNoWriMo group! I did briefly consider setting my novel solely in Second Life, but I’m still not sure it will have the mass appeal I’ll need to become the next J.K. Rowling. Perhaps I’ll reconsider my ambitions a few days in and a family of Wombats will yet appear.
Soon to be the world’s second most famous literary wombats
I’m going to start later today, over tea, probably. (Here’s my, as of yet very empty, user page )
I just finished Stephen King’s book On Writing. In it, he said he doesn’t map out a plot for his stories ahead of time. He just creates a situation then lets the characters play it out.
@ Eva – good luck! Race you to 50,000 ;-)
@ Troy – that’s interesting, because I’ve seen that strategy advocated a lot on the NaNoWriMo forums, but I’ve always personally thought that it would be pretty much impossible. I guess it depends very much on the nature of the book (you only have to look at Harry Potter to know it was all planned out right from day one, and I’m sure I’d write myself into horrible plot holes), but perhaps novels which are more character driven than plot driven only really develop believable characters if that’s how you do it. I am pretty sure it’s a strategy best left to people with actual talent!
Am about to start writing. First step: kill off the tiger.