Waaaaaaaaa ....

Yep, the pre-off nerves are setting in now. What excuses can I come up with that'll make a withdrawal seem honourable? Why the fuck did I spout off to everyone and their dog/cat that I was going to take part? why am I such an arse?

"But that's all part of it," my £100 a week internet sensei says (I should be so lucky). "Relax and you will achieve all your little heart desires."
"What? 50,000 words?"
"Well, yes my child. But to be really sure, another little donation would help."

Nope, I'm here all by myself. Me and my netbook: bonded together for a whole month with windows 7 (which had better not fuck up). I'm truly and honestly looking forward to it. Truly ... honestly. I have a few friends taking part, too. And we'll be righteous! word, man, word! :)

Now. Back to it.

Hellion.

Synopsis: Hellion

Far from the hustle and bustle of London, way to the west of the madding crowd lies Hellion, a Cornish village that has almost magically remained apart from the modern world. The Hellion Arms has been run by Moon's for generations. Now, though seldom seen, Talek Moon is the landlord and the pub run by Kenver, his son.

A strained meeting with the family solicitor and a wax sealed envelope
gifts Digory Olver with news he has inherited his great aunt’s
cottage in Hellion, a place he can barely remember from his childhood.

Excited at his windfall, Digory sets off for Cornwall. But
the nearer he gets to Hellion the stranger he begins to feel.

Ludicrous!

I know I said I was definitely going to use Scrivener, but now I'm not so sure. Not because it isn't good: it is, but because I have all my pre-planned (chortle) snippets in Page Four. Then there's Q10 which is a wonderfully good but basic text only programme, and Writer's Cafe, and ... and ... [wail].

Honestly, I'm at the stage I really don't care what I write in. And I know exactly why I'm frothing at the mouth over software choice. I'm setting myself up with excuses for not writing 50,000 words. I'm setting myself up to fail. OUCH! Know thyself. And that's as honest as I'm ever going to be in a public blog.

what I have done is made a little notebook for NaNo 2010. Proud as punch I am, too. I found a site that belongs to Hamish MacDonald, a Canadian writer who lives in Scotland. He calls himself an Author and Indie Publisher, and he not only writes novels, but physically produces them himself! Literally! So I followed his instructions and made a small A6 hardback notebook. For notes, yes. Which will, indubitably, help me with the thing I shall be penning.

In other news, yesterday we played as a real band and it was FANTASTIC! For the first time we had a drummer, a bassist, and no backing tracks at all. Admittedly, it was a nadge rough, but the soul was there in spades. Shivers down the spine and all.

So, tum-te-tum, the choices are:
1) a collection of short stories with a central theme ie- the snug in a pub where stories are told during a drunken afternoon's revelry.
2) A pick up from 'Worth' the 24,000 words I wrote in 2008. A new novel that will be merged with the original post NaNo.
3) raison d'être - Parallel trading, drug smuggling, and revenge!
4) Tiatrather - Way smith finds out there are other places as real as earth, saves the elven queens life and ends up in love.
5) Sol - a couple of alien spirits arrive on earth and inhabit and help a pair of runaways.
6) slice of Life -
7) Probisher -

And not a lot of time left to decide!

6 days and counting.

I've just installed Scrivener for windows and it's peachy. Peachy in that I'm going to use it for NaNo as I can't faff around any longer thinking about software. After all, novels don't come from software, and Muse is getting upset.

Story ideas? Nope, and yes. Fragments are squeezing their way out of the thing I call a brain/mind/gray matter ... but no cohesive whole just yet. Though I have no doubt whatever it turns out to be it will involve elves. ;)

8 days to go ....

Just eight days to go until the off and I still have no firm idea as to what I'm going to write. A collection of short stories seems to be the easiest, but that isn't what I want. I want to complete a real long form story, not wuss out with shorts.

Whatever I end up writing I'm going record and podcast. That, at least, I've decided. Also, I think it'll be with Scrivener, too, as it looks like the best of all the software I've tried.

NaNoWriMo 2010

I've just signed up for 2010 after deciding I definitely wouldn't. This leads me to wonder if NaNo might be quantifiably addictive. 'Probably' has to be the answer.

Anyway, this year I shall pre-plan (yeah, right).