This year I am taking part in NaNoWriMo, which is an American contest in which the participants each attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Everyone who writes a 50,000-word novel in November wins. It's a nice contest. For those of you who think that 50,000 words is short for a novel, you're right. But if you think that there are no 50,000-word novels, you're wrong. According to the good people at NaNoWriMo, both Of Mice and Men and Brave New World are 50,000 words long.
I will not be writing anything like either of those books.
I will be writing a novel concerning a couple who live in Leitrim who are SPIES! and also B-LIST MOVIE ACTORS! I don't know anything about SPIES! so their spying activities are going to be more at the Charlie's Angels end of the spying spectrum than the George Smiley end of the spectrum.
I do know quite a lot about B-MOVIE ACTORS! so the story will probably concentrate more on that aspect of their lives.
People have asked me why I am doing this. Will I get published? Represented? Seen by an agent? No. I will not get any of those things. I will get the fun of writing a novel in 30 days, just so I can say I did it. Also, the site accepts donations. Naturally, there are costs to running a contest like this, so half of any donations that people make go to running the contest and the site, and half goes to building libraries for children in Vietnam. So if you feel you want to help me in my endeavours and offer some support, you could make a donation. You don't have to, though. Comments and emails of encouragement will work quite well to shame me into getting the thing finished.
If you are also doing NaNoWriMo, you can look for me in the participant section. I'm Accentmonkey.
4 comments:
Go Accentmonkey! I love it already, and you haven't written a word.
And there's nowt wrong with the Charlie's Angels sort of spy.
I've been hearing lots about this NaNoWriMo thing, without ever getting any idea what it was - and now you have told me. This is good.
Apparently Richard Allen, that skin head books guy, once wrote a novel in a week, while drinking at least a bottle of whiskey each day, though of course he did not have a day job and his book was probably not very good.
I must give this a go next year, if they ever do it again.
Good luck.
Michael Moorcock used to write books over a drug-fuelled weekend. Not books you would have heard of.
Robert Silverberg, too. Even Philip Dick once wrote one in a fortnight.
Very late with the comments, sorry.
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