Day 1: Well-begun is half done


Back Bay Brewing cap, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey.

It’s November, that heady month when people across the Web and around the world leave behind silly things such as reason and rationality and hygiene and take on tremendous challenges. NaNoWriMo. NaBloPoMo. DrawMo! And many other Mos of which I’m as yet unaware.

This year I’m tackling DrawMo and NaNoWriMo, with special twists on each:

For DrawMo, I’m working with just one medium: the Brushes app on my iPhone. I’m not an accomplished artist, I have never worked in waterpaint, and I downloaded Brushes just yesterday. Above you can see my first drawing. It’s interestingly difficult to paint with your finger on a tiny screen. The good news is I can only improve.

For NaNoWriMo, I’m going to do something I haven’t done in any of the years I’ve done this event: I’m going to post everything in the novel, in full, as it’s written. Yes, I’m going to expose every word of what is sure to be a really shitty first draft to the glaring light of the Web. I won’t do it on this blog — I have another site all set that is more sturdy, the better to withstand the onslaught of terrible fiction.

The thing is, I haven’t written today’s quota of words for the novel yet, and due to tomorrow’s work schedule I need to go to sleep right now. So I’ll be starting this novel a day behind.

No matter. I can catch up.

Are you thinking of getting in on this impossible challenge action? I hope you are. I could use the company.

To tempt you, I am offering a prize: an official “No Plot? No Problem!” novel writing kit, a product of the NaNoWriMo organization. I have one kit, brand new and unopened, from a past year when I was a Municipal Liaison. It includes:

  • The excellent NaNoWriMo writing guide No Plot? No Problem!, written by Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo
  • Daily noveling briefs
  • A month-long, guided, displayable log with gold stars for keeping track of progress
  • Motivational materials
  • The Radiant Badge of the Triumphant Wordsmith

You know that you want this. The price on it is $19.95, but they aren’t sold any more, so who knows what it might be worth. It’s a collector’s item. It’s a major award!

To enter the drawing to win, please comment below. Your comment must contain either (1) the working title of the NaNoWriMo novel that you will write this month, which name you may change at will later but that you commit to finishing under some name; or if you are not doing NaNoWriMo this year, (2) the title and synopsis of an original novel that you will not be writing. The wackier, the better. (That is, you don’t get more chances for writing a weird and wild synopsis, but I will enjoy reading about it more.)

UPDATE: Additional rule: To win the noveling kit, you must supply a mailing address for me to ship to that is within the United States. International postal costs are a killer, eh?

I’ll hold the drawing Wednesday, so you’ll still have most of the month to make use of the noveling kit’s advantages.

Write on! Draw on!

5 replies on “Day 1: Well-begun is half done”

  1. Awesome contest, Cynthia. This is my first year doing NaNo and I definitely need some motivation because I’m habitual edit-as-I-go type of writer. The novel I’ll be doing this year is presently titled “The Reversalists.” I hope I win!

  2. I am going to try to do NaNoWriMo and always do a passable NaBloPoMo.

    I’m a nonfiction writer who is scared to death of fiction so my novel would most likely be called Scared To Death of Fiction. It will not contain any kinds of writerly exhortations like “Write on!” in the title, so there’s that.

    I’m not sure that counts as an entry. Therefore I am choosing Breaking It Down as the working title for the novel I may have the guts to write this month. Thanks for making me think. The prize sounds nifty. :)

  3. I’m currently working on a novel (as yet untitled), about a guy that can sense the feelings of other people shortly before they occur. This ability forewarns him of an impending disaster (could be nuclear, could be something else at this point) and he rushes down to the basement bomb shelter in the building where he works. The bomb shelter was being decommissioned, and a few workers were inside when he shut the door while diving in. That’s when the explosion(s) happened, etc.

    This isn’t for NaNoWriMo, just something I’m working on when I feel inspired.

    Oh, and I’m typing it up on a Brother Super Power Note 8500MDS:

    http://bobrixon.blogspot.com/2008/07/brother-super-powernote.html

    Of course I’ll wear out before it does, it has an 8-10 hour battery life. And I’ve got a spare unit and batteries.

  4. Cool! I heard about this last year, but I didn’t really understand it. I’m going to do it this year and I’m terrified. I think this will be a good way to just not worry about perfection and get something major accomplished, even if I never want to show it to anyone!
    Title: A Stronger Woman
    Synopsis: It’s a story about a woman who married her high school sweetheart, watched her marriage fall apart after the war, and finally found a way to leave, live, and love again.

Comments are closed.