OK freaking out a bit now LOL..

11 hours til midnight and the writing can start.  The NaNo forums are down.  My characters refuse to talk to me.  The house needs cleaning :S and I know I ought to do it today BEFORE I start writing, but feel very uninspired.

Have had a run in with a moron on another forum I help to moderate ... I'd like to tell that creature to make like a gerbil and crawl up her own orifice and die.... , but that would not be polite.  I think I am beginning to be frustrated with the dumbing down of society as a whole.. it just seems to give the idiots more scope to run their mischief.

Hopefully I make it to midnight and actualy manage to get somewhere ..  Will let you know ;)

NaNoWriMo Synopsis:

Earth's colonies orbit the moon which we are strip mining for resources, having mostly depleted our own planet. A cataclysmic event occurs, leaving the earth uninhabitable in a matter of months. The refugees are installed in temporary living space on the moon while a portion of the survivors seek a new star with a planet that can support human life, intending to scout, establish a base, then come back to rescue the survivors. Meanwhile archaeological discoveries are made within the surface of the moon, and it becomes easier for humans to live there. Conflicts emerge, mutiny entails, and the survival of the human race becomes a choice of destination .. the moon or the unknown star system.

OK this is all starting to come together.

I found some prepsheets on the NaNo website to help with planning the plot and characters, and they are a great help.  There are even worksheets where you can select the personality traits of your protagonists, so you have a clear idea on who they are and then where they can go. 

So I went mad ticking boxes and have now painted a larger than life plot, that can hopefully carry me through at least 50,000 words.  

Still pestering my poor partner for ideas.... might be divorced by the time the month is out :O

Pre NaNo Plotting

AARGH  lol

This is doing my head in. I have a setting in mind for the novel, but I am struggling for a plot.  Hmm.  I am sure if I keep thinking I will get there, I just hope it doesn't take too long.

There is a pre-NaNo coffee meet this Sunday in the city so I think I will go to that, and talk to the people who have done this contest in previous years.  I am a bit worried I will get bogged down in details.  Since I like to know how things work, I am also tempted to tell my readers too much information about technology.  My partner says I should explain nothing and let the readers imagine everything ... not sure about that either but there must be a happy medium somewhere.

I am really fortunate in that I tripped over a writing site I like,  http://www.thenextbigwriter.com and several members there are entering NaNo.  So if all else fails I might get some moral support there.  

Here is a copy of my preparation list for NaNo:

1. Nag partner to let me buy a new computer ;)  am now typing from my new laptop  (downside .. now have to learn to use Vista )

2. Look through music collection and make up playlists of tracks that make me think.

3. Stock up on groceries so I don't have to go out in the heat and shop. For a month (I wish).

4. Tell the cats they are not allowed to disturb me for a month... no hairballs, no clawing the furniture... (Likelihood of success is somewhat less than zero)

5. Test airconditioning.  Summer has come early this year, it's been 36C last 2 days (97F)

6. Last LOL Find a semi plausable plot, or if all else fails wing it ;)

:S perhaps point 6 should have been point one !!!!!!

Stay tuned for my next update ... hopefully an Eureka moment !!!

I am just starting up this blog.  Probably so I have somewhere to come and whinge at while I attempt this year's NaNoWriMo.  Not at all sure whether I can write fifty thousand words that even make sense within a month.  

I am thinking of a science fiction plot because at least I can make up the stuff I don't know ;)  Never let facts get in the way of a good story :)

Luckily for me my partner is a geek and an electronics engineer.  I can always get ideas there and get some of my theories checked for obvious errors. Failing that, we also have some great debates about sci-fi tv shows.

I am thinking about using NaNo to expand a short story I wrote in 1999 into a novel.  But I am not sure if that is within the rules.

I have joined the perth group in the forums for moral suport.  Maybe I will meet up with some of the other writers.  The group for my side of the city meets somewhere terribly inconvenient, so I am still undecided.

wish me luck :)

Kosmos