Quiet domino.

Good lord, it is finally over and done with – and just in time too. Work is beginning to pile in already.

I think I started out quite well, actually. I managed a considerable amount of words during the first week due to the holidays. I would toss and turn in bed at night, trying to formulate and lay out the proper foundations to the story, pondering different conclusions and possible character additions.

Then it became a rollercoaster ride – sometimes I get to write more, other times, not at all.

Eventually I got fueled up enough during the final week to write more, probably because I thought I was getting closer to the target.

No, it was not easy. Not unless you have it all well-thought out. I did not, and so I often faced dead ends, not knowing where to turn to next.

Do not ask me just yet, if I will join Nanowrimo again next year. I think I need to, er, recover. And no, no more writing about fantasy the next time… I will gladly just stick to reading fantasy, thank you.

Some random observations while in the course of furiously churning out words, trying to surpass the 50,000-word requirement:

• basically tried to structure my routine around Nanowrimo. As in, I was constantly plagued with thoughts concerning the darned novel, everything else had to wait.
• alarmed my parents quite a bit. They did not know what I was doing in front of the computer for so many late nights.
• a few more keys on my keyboard that gets stuck regularly, aside from the ‘Delete’ and right ‘Shift’ keys: mainly the ’+’ (too much word count, maybe).
• best music to listen to while writing: Elbow, Franz Ferdinand, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco.
• ... I am such a sadist. I lost count of the number of times I flung poor Evan across the room. Bleed, bleed for me.

Oh, and Mr. Tweedy, thank you for keeping me company.

On air now: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Wilco

Into the other looking glass.

Contemplation. Frustration. Indecision.

Then, I made the move.

For all things Nanowrimo (for now, anyway) – updates, excerpts, so-called progress, choices of mental institutions – head on over to Rhymeglass at http://rhymeglass.insatiably.net.

I know, I know. But I could not find any proper words beginning with the letter ‘r’ that can be effectively added as a prefix to ‘glass’. Another option was ‘rain’, but I think ‘rhyme’ will be able to convey the, er, meaningful existence of the subdomain a little bit more. Ahem.

Nano-nano.

Unfortunately, I am convinced that the days of boredom will not extend to November. That is why I have been taking such a long time to come to a decision.

And now, it looks like I am willing to give it a try, after all.

So, yes. This year’s Nanowrimo will be my maiden attempt at writing what will be equivalent to a 175-page novel.

I have yet to work out the logistics, though. Should I publish the novel online? Must I create a separate website specifically for it? Would it be wise to create a working timetable that I can refer to? Do I need to keep a few sachets of Nescafe within reach? How can I be assured that I can achieve the 50,000-word target? What if I have to be hauled to a mental institution after all this is over?

We shall see.