Another National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. At this point, I’ve gotten so used to this annual ritual that it would feel wrong if I wasn’t spending November trying to write at least 1,667 words per day. I started all the way back in 2009, so this is my tenth year doing the November NaNoWriMo – and I’m looking to maintain my 100% completion record!
Since this is my tenth NaNoWriMo, I decided early on that I wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary. Inspiration came from the notebook in which I jot down potential ideas and topics that might make interesting stories one day – but this time I wasn’t sticking to just one idea. I picked out all of my favourite ideas which I hadn’t done full stories for yet, and wondered if I could somehow pile them all into a single piece of work. For a little while, I played with somehow making a cohesive novel-length story out of the material, but soon lost enthusiasm for that idea. Instead, I decided to do a collection of short stories.
Right now, I’ve got a list of the story concepts I’m going to work with, and varying levels of planning for each one. I also want to try and link the stories; one idea I had was inspired by Tom Hanks’ short story collection Uncommon Type, in which he features a typewriter in each of his tales. My aim is to fit snakes into each of my stories, being the snake-lover that I am; maybe not always a living, physical snake, but at least some sort of ophidian reference.
Here’s to another fun and frantic November. Please let me know in the comments if you are also doing NaNoWriMo, and check out the videos about NaNoWriMo that I made last year!
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