NaNoWriMo: Progress Report
NaNoWriMo 2023: 88 Words
National Novel Writing Month is November, sometimes called NaNoWriMo for short, or more realistically, NoNoNoNo.
In this month of thirty days, the objective is to write fifty thousand words. Not quite a novel, more a novella, but any way you look at it a sizeable commitment, especially for someone with “never put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after” habits.
‘Mr Mowett,’ called Stephen in the pause while the table was clearing to make room for the pudding, and pudding-wine — in this case Frontignan and Canary — was handing about, ‘you were telling me about your publishers.’
‘Yes, sir: I was about to say that they were the most hellish procrastinators — ‘
‘Oh how dreadful,’ cried Fanny. ‘Do they go to — to special houses, or do they …’
‘He means they delay,’ said Babbington.
‘Oh.”
― Patrick O’Brian, The Letter of Marque
For me to get through this, I must use my OC/DC powers to stick to a schedule with public oversight of my progress or resign myself to writing a boatload of tosh and applying for my winner’s certificate.
Or failing dismally. This would not be the first time and in fact, it probably marks the majority of my efforts. I can really only recall a couple of times when I produced the required wordage and it turned out to be something remotely worth reading.
The first was 2004 when I put an immense effort into the final ten days of November, constructing an elaborate network of fictional blogs, journal entries, and social media posts all centring on some crime in a bookshop, the sordid details of which have long since escaped my cringing memory.
Last year’s effort, written under a pseudonym’s pseudonym actually earned me a few dollars and an invitation to submit an adventure story to an anthology published with proceeds going to charity but with rights returned immediately which scored me a little bit more money. About a hundred American dollars, all told.
I haven’t given up on this turning into a fabulously successful series of novels but it is probably significant that this year I didn’t choose to continue the effort.
Enter Sherlock
About a year ago I found a Kickstarter project in my social media feed.
I was seduced by the illustrations, mainly. It looked like a gorgeous product. I still haven’t seen it; I arranged for it to be shipped to Scotland where I was visiting in June and as it didn’t arrive until September by which time I was long gone. I never got to see it and I may pick it up next April in Finland or it may be gone for good.
Nevertheless, it set my brain running down the streets of London in the late Victorian age and I belatedly made the acquaintance of Sherlock Holmes.
Naturally, I didn’t need a fancy-dancy illustrated hardback volume to read A Study in Scarlet — or any other Holmes story. They are now all out of copyright and can be downloaded from various places on the net.
Not that this stopped me from buying some books for myself, notably Leslie Klinger’s magisterial three-volume New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, an extraordinary work of scholarship. (I was amused to see that Patricia Chui, the founding administrator of The Gunroom of HMS Surprise where I have been a member for twenty-some years, is listed as a researcher.)
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are one of the great partnerships of fiction. Almost from the start, the pair have attracted a cult following and the stories have remained continuously in print for well over a century.
Somewhere along the way, the concept of developing a set of follow-on mystery stories published on Medium.com in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” format entered my head.
Done right, this could be a nice little earner. Crank out a mystery a month, build up a following, retire on the proceeds, and have fun on the way.
Well, that’s the theory
I gave it some thought, set up a bit of a framework and then did nothing much but read mysteries for a year. About half the Holmes opus, along with some of the background.
I roughed out a murder mystery setting and shoved it onto the back burner.
The time has come to turn up the heat. On myself, mostly.
NaNoWriMo is the perfect excuse to give the theory a stir.
I did nothing for the first three days of November. There were a few admin things I needed to do, mostly about setting up a Windows laptop to handle the database I’d need to keep track of dozens or (more likely) hundreds of stories.
I’m a Mac guy. This is not easy.
The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild was hosting some NaNoWriMo events and I decided to join the regular Saturday accountability brunch at the National Library of Australia.
Hard to get a more inspiring location. The cafe serves great food and more importantly coffee, the place is full of books in every form and variety, the bookshop is a gem, and there are quiet areas downstairs for a writing session after some socialising.
Hello, my name is Peter and I’m a writer …
It’s been a week now. I need help.
Coffee, company, creativity. What more could I ask for?
To be honest, I spent most of the writing session setting up my laptop and downloading things I needed — like a revamp of last year’s wordage spreadsheet — but I did get some writing done.
88 words. It may not seem like much compared to the nearly 2 000 I need to write every day of November, but it’s a start and that’s the big thing.
I’m on my way!
Where to find the stuff
The Medium.com publication to host these mysteries is here.
It’s pretty much just a shell at the moment but once I have enough material to make it worth reading, I’ll open it up a little.
My wordage spreadsheet is here:
I’ve got quite a lot on my plate for this month, including an interstate trip, volunteering at Lifeline, minding my grandchildren, and regular Wednesday night meetings. It’s going to be a challenge to make my target, I think, but the big hurdle — of actually doing something — is now behind me.
