My novel has its first title.
The Cheese Deity, and Other Bizarre Objects Seen on the Planet Etisoppo
I fully expect this title to change, because I hate the name of my planet. Last year’s NaNovel went through 3 titles before I landed on Unemployed Scientist: My Life as a PhD. So I won’t be too upset if this title changes before the end of November.
If anyone has any planet name suggestions, I would love to hear them…
Today is November 1. It is the start of many things. Flu shots are available now in many places. You can now buy stock in Facebook. Leaves start to fall off the trees in bulk. *Some* people are wiping the memory of October from their minds.
Most importantly, it is the start of NaNoWriMo. Oddly, I woke up this morning not bursting with writing energy, but melancholy.
I had big plans for NaNoWriMo kick-off this year. I convinced several friends to join me in the craziness, so I was super-psyched to get noveling. But even the best-laid plans can be thwarted by determined diabolical minds, so it is with a long sigh that I embark on my month-long noveling adventure, without fanfare, ego stroking, or words of encouragement.
This blog may be updated less frequently during the next month. Sorry about that. But I promise to share all my writer’s block, plot problems, and unruly characters taking over my life as often as possible! Also, I am looking for 2 people to read my novel at the end of the month. It’s going to be science fiction, a la The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Any volunteers?
I am pleased to present my three main characters for NaNoWriMo 2008. The plot they are involved in is still being kept under wraps – unless you are super-cool and I have already told you what it is (developed fully today!).
Main Character #1: Ben Vandenberg – a PhD in astrophysics trying to choose between a job offer from NASA and a teaching position at the University of AZ. He has an enormous crush on Main Character #2.
Main Character #2: Sydney Eaton – dropped out of grad school (where she and Ben met each other) because she was bored. She’s got a bad case of wanderlust and commitment-phobia.
Main Character #3: Zebulon Lewis Jones – AKA the Invisible Flying Cheese Monster. He disappeared from the planet Earth under mysterious circumstances (very ala Amelia Erhardt) in 1822, and now resides in a yet-to-be-named other world, where he leads a very comfortable, if somewhat cheesy, life.
NaNoWriMo… only 28 hours to go!
I stumbled on this website in a NaNoWriMo forum. I think it’s pretty much one of the coolest things ever.
Here is the description of what it is:
authonomy invites unpublished and self-published authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project – and must make at least 10,000 words available for the public to read. Visitors to authonomy can comment on these submissions – and can personally recommend their favorites to the community. authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site. It also spots which visitors consistently recommend the best books – and uses that info to rank the most influential trendspotters. We hope the authonomy community will guide publishers straight to the freshest writing talent – and will give passionate and thoughtful readers a real chance to influence what’s on our shelves. For every reader who puts your manuscript on their “Bookshelf,” your rank goes up. And the top five manuscripts each month will be sent to the editors at HarperCollins for review.
So that’s 2 ways now that this year’s NaNovels can possibly get published!
Today is October 11th. That means yesterday was October 10th. That means there are 20 days left until NaNoWriMo begins and I already had my first writing-related meltdown.
I guess that’s not TOO bad.
Lucky for me, I have a fabulous NaNo buddy who talked me off my cliff. Not an easy task, but my NaNo buddy always proves herself up to the challenge. 
The problem was that while I have a concept in mind for my novel, I am having doubts about my ability to a) write it well, and b) not have it stray off into a realm that is completely unreadable. My ultimate goal is to have Sex and the City meet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. So I was freaking out about whether or not that is an attainable goal.
The solution? Clearly my inner critic is overactive early this year and needs to be sent far, far away until December arrives. So as of noon yesterday, aforementioned critic is winging her way to the depths of the Amazon for a Discovery Channel documentary filming, not scheduled to return until sometime in the first week of December. My inner editor will be joining her around October 30th.
Crisis averted.
As if there aren’t already enough amazing reasons to participate in NaNoWriMo, here is one more!
Last year this wasn’t an option because the person who put the offer together quit (I think).
How cool is it to think that by the end of December you could have a hard copy of a book written by MOI in your hands??
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