NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week. Am I ready? Not remotely. Am I going to dive into it anyway? Absolutely.
I'm going to pants the shit out of this novel.
For those not "in the know," pantsing is writing by the seat of your pants (a phrase which also makes no god damn sense). You have maybe a vague idea of plot, or a few characters, and you make up the whole damn thing as you go.
I mean, my first NaNo novel was just made up as I went, for the most part, and that worked just fine. I just need a lot of crazy things to happen and to describe those things thoroughly. Unfortunately, concision is my downfall. I just can't meander on with flowery descriptors and purple prose.
Maybe that's why I have to set this thing on a spaceship. Lots of technology and backstory to explain. I actually do know how the ship is propelled, I could go on about that. I don't know how they have gravity, though. Maybe magic. I don't really want to do that spinny thing, because where would my cannibals hide.
Frankly, I still don't know if there are actual cannibals who play an actual part in the story. But if I need words, you can bet that they'll come crawling out of the vents in search of fresh long pig.
I just hope that my half-formed main character is deep and interesting enough to carry this whole load of nonsense. As you may recall from my initial spit-balling of this story, I've tried to do those character questionnaire things, and they always just seem like a bunch of completely useless information, especially in a genre piece like this, where questions like "favorite season" just don't make sense.
Oh my god, I have an idea. Hang on while I go write it down.
Okay, I'm back. I just figured out how to start the story. I feel like there was more to the idea than what I wrote down, but that's my brain for you. It's like when you wake up from a dream, and the more you try to remember it, the more it slips away. Particularly if the dream logic doesn't hold up under real world scrutiny. There might have been some dream logic in my idea. It just popped up, in full color, in my mind, and I actually reacted like it hit me in the face. And then I tried to apply logic to it and… *thpppt*
But I think I'm onto something.
I've got a vague idea, and somewhere to start. I can figure this out as I go. It's going to be fine.
I'll see you… soon?
Title Source: Bulletproof Messenger - Step Out
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