I’m a NaNoWriMo Rebel!

November 2, 2012 at 11:09 am (NaNoWriMo)
Tags: creativity, NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month, writing

I bet you’re wondering what it takes to be a NaNoWriMo Rebel.  Sadly, not much.  There’s no anarchy involved, no guns, no rebel yells or rallying cries, and no James Dean in sight.  It simply means that I am writing 50,000 words of something other than a novel this November.

What else is there?  Oh, there are so many options.  Let me count the ways to rebel –

1.  Short stories (my favorite) – I started the day yesterday with the prompt “We are made of stars, you and I” which, oddly enough, turned into a short story about a murder mystery weekend in a Tuscan Villa created by a writer with an ulterior motive.  It’s not done but I’ve moved on… for now.
2. Essays – there will definitely be one or two of these this month, possibly considerably more, particularly if I get my ire up about something.
3. Poetry – Now this might be a little difficult to get 1,667 words in a day with but I’m sure a few will be popping in there.
4. Blog posts – Yes, I shall be including this in my daily word count.  If I write it, I count it.
5. Facebook posts – Similar to blog posts but probably on a smaller scale.  A fellow writer I know has been posting creative short fiction on Facebook for months now and is planning to expand on those posts to do NaNoWriMo this year.
6. Twitter feed posts – Now this would be a real challenge.  It depends on how many times you tweet a day.  You have 140 characters, more like 125 if you want people to be able to re-tweet it so say 20 to 25 words.  If we’re optimistic and say 25 words, that means you’d need (excuse me while I check with my calculator.)  Yep, calculator confirms you will need about 67 posts a day to get your word count in.  Good luck and God speed to your thumbs.
7. Flash Fiction – Oh, another favorite.  Really, flash fiction can be any length up to 1,000 words or so but I usually aim for 50 words.  It’s a tight format but fun.  I will definitely be doing some of these.
8. Novella – Really, if you consider your 50,000 word story to be completely done at the end of the month then it’s more of a novella but a novella can also be as low as 10,000 words so you could write a few this month!
9. Memoir – I adore reading memoirs so I hope somebody out there is writing a smashing new one for NaNo that will be published and I can buy for our library.  Some of my essays fall into this category but I’m not dedicated to it.
10. Script – There’s a whole other month for that (April) so if that’s what you aim to write, either for stage or screen, you’re a NaNo Rebel!
11. Video game – I have no idea how to write these but I imagine it would be something like writing a role playing game with all the alternatives.  Any old dungeon masters out there want to give it a try?
12. Comics – I don’t really consider graphic novels a lesser form of novel, as some people seem to, so I don’t believe writing one for NaNo is actually rebelling but if you move into comics, you’ve become a NaNo Rebel!

Whatever form your creativity takes, National Novel Writing Month is all about stapling your jacket to the back of the chair and getting the words down on paper, or your screen.  Make the most of this creative month and make someone else take out the trash.  I’ll be flying through the writing prompts with a new one each day.  Hope I’ll see you at the finish line!