Ok, it's not as nearly as impressive as it sounds (and there sure isn't a posh advance coming my way from a publishing house) but indeed, next month I'll be taking a break from blogging to partake in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a monthlong endeavor where all participants will try to produce a "novel" of at least 50,000 words, or approximately 175 pages, in a month. Divided up into 30 days, that's a minimum of 1,667 words, or six pages, for each day of the November. I don't think I even wrote that much in an entire quarter at college, and English was one of my majors!
Why the insanity? I'm still asking myself that too, but I guess first and foremost, I definitely feel the blogging fatigue coming on and could definitely use a break without abandoning writing altogether (regular readers would notice in previous years, I usually go on an unannounced hiatus in the summer months... this year I've been surprisingly prolific for my standards with at least 10 posts a month so far), second, it'll be interesting to see what a monthlong intense session of creative writing (which was my emphasis in college anyways) will do to my blogging prose in the long run. Also, I've been inspired to participate by a close friend who's done this last year, and by Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.com's senior editor/legal correspondent whose sabbatical writing project was pretty much this. And lastly, I think it'll be fun to finally be able to make stuff up instead of having to worrying about being accurate and truthful! Then again, there's the pressure of having to make my made-up drivel believable!
Obviously, the world of eating and drinking and my stomping grounds of LA/OC will play a pretty hefty role in this piece. Asides from that, I have NO idea what direction my fiction will take me. Will it be a coming-of-age through cooking in the kitchen? Using cuisine as a catalyst for overcoming a catastrophe? A murder mystery investigating which dish of the forty-course tasting menu was poisoned? Or, heaven forbid, a no reservations rom com (bad pun fully intended!) I guess I have five full days to figure that out, well FML!
Taking a page from Dahlia, I'll be posting chapters on this blog (behind jumps to spare unsuspecting eyes) and I will be asking questions on how the novel should develop, and maybe inquiries of more technical/esoteric details. What kind of drink would the main character always order to gauge a bar? Would the epiphany take place in a nearly-abandoned seedy dive bar or in the middle of a mob in a glitzy gastropub? What's the most secret place in town that only the most in-the-know folks would get into? Can't say I will incorporate all the commenters suggestions, but I'll definitely take every feedback into consideration..
And lastly, this is fiction, and that includes the characters, the places, the actions -- if I happen to have been inspired by a person or restaurant, I'll change significant details so as to avoid absolute identification/association of such in real life (I don't need any more enemies, thank you very much.) I might plop a restaurant on a different street of the same neighborhood, or do some pretty drastic alterations to the physical traits of a character (who will more than likely be a composition of multiple folks I know.) So if you think you know who or what I'm referring to when I write about this or that; it's a coincidence and no, you don't.
P.S. I'll make an effort to keep my Friday Quickies going (though no guarantees) -- just because I'm learning and suffering through this endeavor doesn't mean you'll have to miss out on the awesome events and reads that's offered around town.
Having said that, wish me luck in November and hopefully I'll retain some form of sanity to last me through the holiday season (or maybe as a crazed lunatic I'll blend right in!) And thank you in advance for putting up with my potentially really crappy writing!
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