three minute plot ( 3MB © )

by mg at 10:48 AM on October 31, 2001

I spent a good part of this morning configuring Moveable type in preparation of NaNoWriMo. Then I realized the server I was trying to install on was NT, so I had to stop. Then I tried installing it on another server, got that all worked out, and have the design mostly done and all the templates fixed up. Hopefully everything will be done by tomorrow.

You might ask why I'm spending so much time installing MT and worrying about design when I should be thinking about the plot of my novel. Well, that is a very good question and one I choose to ignore completely.

Actually, it makes sense for me to be doing anything but thinking about writing. Whenever I have a good idea, whether about writing or about how to organize my closet, I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and then when it comes time do it I forget all the great ideas I came up with. So now, I'll just not think about things and worry about writing when the time comes to write.

Speaking of worry, I set up a forum for NaNoWriMo authors (and others)…

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It was stupid of me to make this a 3MB since I’ve got too much to say.

Anyway.

The NaNoWriMo forum will be a place for those participants in this little corner of the blogging universe to share our tragedies and successes over the course of the month, update each other with daily word counts, ask advice on plot points, share inspirations and spur one another past writer’s block. Or, you know, just commiserate.

And the forum isn’t just for NaNoWriMo participants, no it isn’t. It’d be cool if other people stopped by with words of encouragement, inspiration or good karma-mojo wishes to the would-be novelists.

No one may end up using the forum, but it is there if anyone needs it.

Also! I thought of another idea for a plot. I’m going to write an entire novel about someone who is writing a novel. Maybe. It’ll be an anti-novel; like an episode of Seinfeld, only funny, and with words instead of pictures.

I already know why the character would be writing a novel (and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with NaNoWriMo). I know whether, in the end, he writes the novel. And I’ve already come up with sketches for a couple chapters. This is a really cheap way to write a novel, and if I really want to take this thing seriously I should write about people doing important things and having virulent feelings; yet…

This is supposed to be fun, isn’t it? Oh, I’m still throwing around ideas, I guess. Come tomorrow morning we shall see what words come dripping out of my quill. I’ll probably end up flipping a coin, as all-important decisions in life should be made.