For the grand opening of this blog, I’m spotlighting some of my favorite blog posts and moments from over the years throughout the month of June.
Week Three: CINDER from Conception to Publication
.
By this point, I’m sure many of you have heard about my crazy 150,000-word sprint during the NaNoWriMo of 2008. Well, here’s where it all began…
(FYI, the “novel in multiple stories” idea was the Lunar Chronicles, and obviously the one I decided to write.)
AS A MATTER OF FACT, I AM INSANE
First posted on August 21, 2008
See the original post at: http://marissameyer.livejournal.com/59269.html
According to the Seattle Area Nanowrimo ML:
“This year’s top Seattle wrimos in both wordcount and fundraising will be invited to play a walk-on role in the second episode of Star Trek: Phoenix, a new series which is shooting in the Seattle area. Leo Roberts, the Executive Producer of the series and owner of Temporal Studios has agreed to offer those parts up as incentive to the area’s writers.”
So okay, I’m not a huge Trekkie, but my Uncle Bob is, and he would FLIP if I somehow managed to actually win this prize.
So I did a quick author search and determined that last year’s highest Seattle-area Nano-er had 100,736 words. Second place was 100,275 words, with a handful of people in the 90s and 80s.
But with this added incentive, there will probably be more aiming for the 100,000 word mark this year, right?
Which makes me think that to have a real chance, one would probably need to hit 120,000 or 130,000, and, heck, if we’re aiming that high, we might as well aim for 150,000, right? Which would probably be a shoe-in. One would hope.
Which averages to 5,000 words a day.
Which, for me, is about 3.5 hours of solid writing time.
Which sounds like a big headache, BUT, if I were to use my 4 remaining days of vacation time, possibly, possibly doable.
The dilemma one then faces is, do I have a story in mind that I think could stretch to 150,000 words? Most of the stories/novels in my head right now will probably be around 70,000 in the end.
Except there is one, that I started when I was a teenager, which I think could become an epic fantasy, that might work, if I decided to resurrect it….
AND there’s a series of stories I’ve been really excited about, which would be about 50,000 words each, but they would all tie together, so I could write it as a “novel in multiple stories” format.
And the best part is that both of these ideas could be possible future publications(!!).
But what would need to be sacrificed? I’ll be in school again at that point, which will totally and completely suck. But I don’t have to go to the gym for a month. And I would have to put all reading on hold, which means I’d better get my butt in gear if I’m going to finish 60 books this year. Or start reading strictly YAs and Harlequins.
Although, I could write on the bus and during lunch hour, which is just about 3 hours a day right there….
OHMYGOD I can’t believe I’m even considering this. I’m not even a Trekkie!!