The Promise
It was 31st of January, 2006 when I announced on my blog that I was going to write a Science-Fiction (Sci-Fi) novel. With a determination to fulfill my promise I began with the ground work necessary for writing a novel. The mysterious baffling theory that would be the heart of the story was finalised. A plot around it was woven. The main actors were drafted. Supporting actors came in. The eventuality, the destiny of the actors decided by that scientific experiment had me so gripped that I hardly needed any further motivation. It was a thought experiment by 3 eminent scientists proved to be correct almost 50 years after they theorised it. But the analogy was mine. The thoughts were completely original. What happened of the novel later is something I can't recollect now.
NaNoWriMo
I heard of some people talking about Nanowrimo in some blogs a year or two ago, but I never was so inquisitive to learn more about it as the passion to write had waned away long back. It sounded like some new sophisticated technology. It was on the 31st of October that I overheard a few of my Twitter friends discussing Nanowrimo and this time around I went ahead and read about it.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is an event where people from all over the world get together and start writing their own novels. The rules are simple. You have a whole month with you to write a novel of 50,000 words. Those are the only constraints! You choose what you wish to write about. You choose how you write it, when you write it. If you finish the 50,000 words before the month ends you have won. What do the victorious get? Does it really matter?
I enrolled that very day with no idea about what I would write. But I wanted to write. I could have been my lazy self saying, "Aah! Not this time. I'm too late. Next year most certainly!" but I know myself quite well. Next year would never come. It had to be this year. It had to be now. When I began thinking of what I would write about, I remembered my old post about the Science Fiction novel. I had used Microsoft One Office Note to store my thoughts. And what I saw left me baffled.
Revisiting the archives
A story was right at hand. The mind-boggling thought experiment. Equivalent theories in philosophy, in mythology, in religion. My interpretations of the theories. Links to websites about actual experiments on the theory. Links to even more audacious theories. Actors, Plots and that analogy that almost made me cry 4 years back. Everything was there. There was a flaw though. I didn't feel it anymore. None of it. All of that passion, all of that addiction, that intoxication with science had long gone. I couldn't cheat myself for a month trying to make 50,000 words with that work.
So I decided to come up with a completely new story from scratch. I've written about 8,000 words on it already and it seems rather boring right now. But there are a lot of things I've come to learn about writing.
- You need targets to get things done. You could be passionate about something. The passion will sail you through the first day. You will get through the second, third and fourth day without any hitches. By the end of the first week, doubts begin to enter the mind.
- You never know how long is long. At first, 50,000 words did not sound daunting. I made a plot, added a few sub-plots, made a few characters. I knew I would make it before Nov 30. I began writing and my ideas got converted to words by the hour. I take a count of words and I am 47000 words short of actual target. Panic attack.
- Discipline will take you where passion will not. Or if you like the quote of inspiration and perspiration percentages then use it. You need milestones to see if you are on the right path. If you know you are not you need to do course correction.
- Even Art needs deadlines. There was some debate on Twitter this morning about how deadlines were a constraint to art. Infact, it was said deadlines killed Art, be it painting, sculpting, photography, creating music or writing. My first attempt of novel had no deadlines. It never even took off. Maybe the architects of Taj Mahal might have told Shah Jahan that with no constraints they could build that wonder in 60-70 years. But Shah Jahan wanted it completed much earlier. Could the Taj Mahal be more beautiful were they given more time? The same goes with the sculptors in the Hindu temples. And plenty more examples could convey my reservations. Art needs deadlines. Not very stringent ones, but big enough to allow creativity to thrive. Make it longer and creativity wanes away.
- You cannot cheat yourself. The rules assume you write the novel yourself. It assumes you write all of it in the given month. It assumes that the content is original and not plagiarised. You could break all those assumptions. But who are you cheating with? Yourself!
Enough rambling. I hope to complete my novel, even though it is my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. I should be writing my novel and not be writing here! If you are taking part in NaNoWriMo add me as your buddy. I'm Sudhamshu there. And Good luck.
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