T-3 days and dithering
Oct. 29th, 2010 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelI am signed up for NaNo ... which starts on Monday ... and I still haven't decided what to write.
The strongest possibility so far is a pre-existing idea that I described recently as "Totally Not A Cross Between Valdemar Books And The Last Unicorn", with middle-aged disabled protagonists (that still have sex lives zomg) and quests for the magic unicorns that once made a pact-or-something to defend and protect the kingdom of TotallyNotValdemar and then mysteriously vanished.
Problem is, technically speaking I have already committed prose (only, like, one scene, and towards the beginning, and I wouldn't include it in the word count and stuff, but novels-that-have-been-started are kind of Verboten). Also, I care about the idea and the characters, which ... is sort of bad for a "write 50k words and allow it to be crap" thing.
OTOH, if I start from scratch, I don't go anywhere. I've tried that.
So, either I come up with something in the next two days, or I go with the evil telepathic unicorns thing.
Problem is, I know what happens if I try to write something that exists in my head. It's what happens every single fucking time at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ficfinishing. I get nowhere, 80% of the time -- there was a SPN fic that I tried finishing up this time and I haven't made any real progress on it -- and the 20% of the time I squeeze words out I end up loathing the idea as well as the words, and can't stand to even think about the story.
It's ... if I know the story well enough to write it, I freeze up out of fear of Doing It Wrong, or fear of What Is On Paper Does Not Match The Ideal Story In My Head. If I don't know the story that well, I can't write it.
*dithers*
The strongest possibility so far is a pre-existing idea that I described recently as "Totally Not A Cross Between Valdemar Books And The Last Unicorn", with middle-aged disabled protagonists (that still have sex lives zomg) and quests for the magic unicorns that once made a pact-or-something to defend and protect the kingdom of TotallyNotValdemar and then mysteriously vanished.
Problem is, technically speaking I have already committed prose (only, like, one scene, and towards the beginning, and I wouldn't include it in the word count and stuff, but novels-that-have-been-started are kind of Verboten). Also, I care about the idea and the characters, which ... is sort of bad for a "write 50k words and allow it to be crap" thing.
OTOH, if I start from scratch, I don't go anywhere. I've tried that.
So, either I come up with something in the next two days, or I go with the evil telepathic unicorns thing.
Problem is, I know what happens if I try to write something that exists in my head. It's what happens every single fucking time at
ficfinishing. I get nowhere, 80% of the time -- there was a SPN fic that I tried finishing up this time and I haven't made any real progress on it -- and the 20% of the time I squeeze words out I end up loathing the idea as well as the words, and can't stand to even think about the story.It's ... if I know the story well enough to write it, I freeze up out of fear of Doing It Wrong, or fear of What Is On Paper Does Not Match The Ideal Story In My Head. If I don't know the story that well, I can't write it.
*dithers*
no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 02:54 pm (UTC)Anyway, good luck with coming up with your NaNo topic. I can't wait to see what everyone turns out.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 11:34 pm (UTC)There seems a good handful of people over there finishing up previously started novels (some done for nano and some not).