Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This.

I had many motivations for starting a blog, just one of which was to build writing discipline so that I'll be able to sit down and write that novel/screenplay/comic book/play/book of gutwrenching poetry when I retire.

I've learned over the past year that, when motivated, I can sit down and pound out a few paragraphs. They will be somewhat coherent. From the response, it also seems that they can be entertaining.

I've also learned, without benefit of college classes, that I can construct an essay and get my point across to a reasonable number of the people reading it. Go me.

I haven't written much in the way of fiction, however.

And when I pictured myself retiring and settling down to a project, I came up with a few different kinds of project. Unsurprisingly, none of them were nonfiction.

This is the point in my life where I start to panic about that. In addition to my work duties (a few too many performance reviews are due very close to Thanksgiving where I work), and my online blogging addiction (I'm steady at two solo blogs, two group blogs, a linkblog, and a full themed BlogCarnival right now!), I convinced myself to pound out a comic book script. Because that is what all comic book fans who can't draw eventually do.

You can't see it.

I was five pages in when I decided to figuratively toss myself off the cliff.

I don't mean in-story, either.

I signed up for National Novel Writing Month.

If posting declines during November, you now know why.

(It's Karen's fault, she talked me into it!)

14 comments:

  1. And yet again, I'm following you into the gates of hell.

    ...

    Eventually I AM going to figure out how to stop you from dragging me into these things.

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  2. No. No, I can't.

    I did it last year (and even blogged about it a little) so I know how tough it is and I don't have the time this year.

    Really, I don't.

    Aargh.

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  3. Welcome to the club. Last year was my first time and I succeeded (barely) with around 51,000 words. Will I be as successful this year? Will *you*?

    It's gonna be a blast!

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  4. Ragnell, congratulations on your resolve, and I'm sure that you will do just fine. If you manage to have the stamina to do your job as well as limitless blogging, as well as find time to eat and sleep, you'll make a great comics writer.

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  5. It's a great experience -- a month of total insanity and immersion. Good luck, and enjoy!

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  6. That's great, Ragnell.

    I had every intention of doing NaNoWriMo this year, but other things have gotten in the way. Glad to see you trying it, though.

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  7. Wish I could, but I'm still finishing up another novel, and have sidelined that for the moment because I'm writing a radio script for the NATF contest.

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  8. Good luck to you! NANOWRIMO is a challenge but I'm sure you'll do great!

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  9. I wish you and Kalinara all the best...as I said on her blog, think of it as a friendly competition...a way of supporting each other and pushing each other to keep writing...though a friendly side bet wouldn't hurt...hee!hee!hee!

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  10. On the one hand, cool.

    On the other hand... Talk about Seven Soldier One first, please. Your bits on Shining Knight and Buleteer were some of my favorite comic blog things ever.

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  11. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who signed up for this...

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  12. Good luck, Ragnell. If it's half as engrossing as your essays here, I'll be unable to put it down.

    -- Jack of Spades

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  13. In case you're interested, Dave (from Yet Another Comic Blog) and I are doing NaNoWriMo a little differently this year. Instead of writing a 175-page prose novel, we are each writing a script for a 175-page graphic novel.

    We have a blog for NaGraNoWriMo at http://nagranowrimo2006.blogspot.com

    Good luck with NaNoWriMo! Enjoy your last two days of sanity.

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