Monday, October 31, 2005

Nanowrimo: At the Starting Line Waiting for the Pistol

So what’s my Nanowrimo novel about?

Well, I think I’m still finding out at the moment! It hit me sometime ago that there was a story I had to write, with a fierce ache in my guts. It has its roots in my own life, but the ‘me’ in the story is not the ‘me’ that sits here writing this - she and I made different choices. And the ‘he’ in the story is not the actual ‘he’ either ... or any other actual 'he'. Both of these characters are beginning to take form as separate individuals and I’m still listening in my notebook to what they’re trying to tell me.

So yes, I'm a bit more organised than last year. I have at least a route map, though I do not know all, or even many, of the stopping points along the way. I have a beginning and some idea of how it might end. (But hey, in the final analysis, that's for my characters to decide, isn't it?) I have a setting - Malacca - a town I love very much.

So themes? What springs to mind … the difficulty of going back to a place when you’ve left it …the whole idea of trying to reach out and touch the past … change/progress versus standing still/stagnation … illiteracy vs. literacy … betrayal.

Will I make 50,000 words this month? Probably not. I have too much real life happening and more commitments than last year. But hey, I'll do my best.

And I'll be cheering on the crazy rest of you writing alongside ...

10 comments:

Leon Wing said...

Best of luck on your nanowriting this coming month. Would you be posting some it online?

PK said...

All da best. Will be checking this blog daily.

oshun said...

I love Malacca too!

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

hows it going so far? how how how???

bibliobibuli said...

leon - i will post bits on my nanowrimo page and give the link. am not brave/foolhardy enough to post the whole thing online!!

pk - many thanks - that will motivate me

oshun - love the feeling of all that history ...

visitor - patience - it doesn't flag off till midnight

suanie said...

PIANGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(that was the pistol btw.. good luck!)

Anonymous said...

Hmm.. like "you can't go home again". Like you go back.. visit your old playground, and you how shabby it is.. and how disgusted you feel at everything broken and dirty. But you had fun here once.. how come you didn't think it was dirty then ? like that I guess.

Edmund Yeo said...

Yay. I've joined too.

Edmund Yeo said...

Suanie: You just shot Sharon.

bibliobibuli said...

swifty - flesh wound only - glad you've joined the insanity!