NaNoWriMo, Report from the front line, now that the dust has settled…

Well, that was fun…

I just spent the last month writing each and every day, most days at least the required 1667-word ration, and I got out of it a 50 007 word manuscript. It is a real manuscript, lovingly written by hand in a moleskine diary, 150 pages of illegible script in green ink (I went through two Pilot Hi-techpoint pens…)…

Now what?

I’ve created characters, I’ve created a story that has many gaping holes in it, and an ending that I feel is not quite satisfying. But I’ve written something that could be turned into a novel. A proper, complete novel, and I really look forward to reading whatever comes out of the second round of drafting that will soon begin.

However, I am now faced with a dilemma: do I edit my Nano-novel, called “Login”, or do I continue drafting the Old Earth story that I started after the world-building month?

Options, options, I’ll let you know when I conclude something…

Writing technology…

As nanowrimo comes closer around the bend, I’m contemplating the way I’m gonna work to produce those 50 000 words. Typing would seem the logical choice, since it’s anyway something that I’ll need to do at some point in order to get the manuscript at the next level.

However, I’ve taken the habit of having a notebook with me at all times (I’ve actually ditched my wallet and use my moleskine to carry my cash and cards…) in order to jot down notes…

I’ve found that the typing process from written notes produces a better result, because of the editing that goes on when the typing happens. I also find that my ideas flow more easily with pen-to-paper, as it is always the way I’ve written, at least creative writing.

I had started a while ago an erotic novel, in french, and trying to get the story out when typing never worked for that particular story, which is now scattered in my papers at home. Maybe I’ll get a secomd notebook and work on that story as well during November… Or maybe I’ll make December another novel writing month…

Novel Writing Month project: Login

I’ve been scratching my head over what to write for the National Novel Writing Month, trying to pick out an idea from my Old Earth world, and I came up with a rather odd idea.

The idea is centered around the network interface I imagined for the 27th century, which is still used three centuries later. The story is called “Login”, and by a cheap play of words I use the “Log” for the timescale, which will be in ten parts, each an extra logarithmic step beyond the departure point.

The story starts in 2010, at the first steps of the mind-computer interface, then in 2011, when the first prototype starts working, then 2020, once the prototype starts production, 2110, when the internet and media market becomes ripe for direct-implant network.

By 3010, once the sun has been blown up in a war, the people of one of the outer world have their whole civilization based around the relationships that it allows between people. In 12 010, humanity has moved beyond the solar system in order to seek out a new star, by 102 010, they have constructed a new earth around a new sun, and are expanding their footprint on the galaxy. By 1 002 010, humanity is turning into something else, something of a hive-mind entity, with individuality being slowly erased.

By 10 002 010, humanity no longer exist. It has become adapted to space travel since time is irrelevant to the hive mind. By 100 002 010, war has broken out between different factions of the ex-humanity and of the Star Spawn, an ancient race that made contact with earth back in 2700 (which is the centerpiece of my “Return to the Old Earth”….), and the new-humans, using a tactic used in an old human war, blow up the galaxy and more on to intergalactic space…

Crazy, eh?

I’m just wondering if it might actually work…