Earlier this week, I decided to sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo. I just got assigned to my cabin, having chosen “Surprise Me!” as my preference for being sorted. I figured why ask for folks of similar age/genre when I could just get the full random effect? I was immediately delighted to see that one of my fellow Cabin mates is a Firefly fan.
For this project, I am re-tooling last fall’s NaNoWriMo, writing a set of all new stories based around a central bizarre location. I think the project will share some genes with Bordertown, which I have not yet read, but is on my summer reading list.
I am excited to start writing, though I have a few pre-writing chores to tackle this weekend, like compiling character lists and story themes. One year, for NaNo, my story was inspired by a series of rhyming couplets. That might sound entirely batfrakkers, and that’s a fair assessment, but it was also incredibly fun. One of my best novels (that I still need to finish and edit) came out of that experience.
One of the reasons I decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo is to get a head start on writing for the prose class I am taking in the fall. Second, I hope to squeeze an episode or five of Scurvytown in there, too. Third, more short stories to submit out into the world. I have a goal by the end of the summer to have at least 3 short stories sent out to lit mags and/or contests, so I need to unplug from the Internet and get focussed on the writing. I know, I know. Good luck with that. I’ll definitely need something, call it luck, call it a cattleprod, whatever, to get me offline and into my bizarre fictional worlds. Escapism at its finest.