ManicDDaily

Pearl Just Can't Make Up Her Mind

Last night, I wrote that I had started Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) with a fair number of words, but a great sense of randomness i.e. no clear plot or plan.

Here’s the question–one faced by anyone trying to write any novel I suppose (that is, one writing a novel just for the sake of writing a novel.)  Do I go for a project I know I could probably cobble together and finish (a project that may have a somewhat silly adolescent aspect), or do I try for something as yet undefined which seems more ambitious and artistic (but which may in fact be undoable, and grandiose)?

My sense is that the most important question is not which project is “better”  but which one I can make myself stick to.

All I can say is that the unformed one is way easier to get started on.  I just sit down and start writing something–a scene or a mood or a memory–and hope that it will somehow fit in with the 3000 words done yesterday.   The problem here is that it’s harder to maintain.  You keep waiting for momentum to kick in, hoping that the fact that you only have one brain will bring a certain uniform stamp and shape to what you are doing.    (This book would ultimately, I guess, be one of those books that seems like a bunch of little stories.)

Or do I go for one of the old plots I have already kicking around–(a) the sequel to a teen fantasy novel about beauty, cruelty, and rebellion (that’s sounding pretty good); (b) adult novel betrayal in Benares (seems a bit hard, right now); (c) children’s book about a little white dog who reads the dictionary, (d) or some kind of “boys’ book” for young people.  (They always need boys’ books.) .

Any suggestions, tell me quick!  Only 29 days to go.