The Perils Of NaNoWriMo

So, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo. Well, unofficially anyway. I’m not joining any sites associated with the idea or anything, and I’ve modified word counts to suit myself, but ultimately, I’m still using the challenge to get the novel I’ve wanted to write for a while written.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. The “National” bit is a bit of misnomer these days, since it’s become a little more international. Hell, the fact I’m doing it shows it’s international. The thing’s American, and I am not.

And of course, the point is to produce a novel by the end of November. Which sounds daunting, until you break it down as I have. First of all, who says you need to have a complete publishable novel by the end of the month? After all, writing a proper novel involves writing multiple drafts and editing constantly until it resembles something genuinely good. So I narrowed this down to writing a first draft by the end of the month. This means all I need to do is write 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Still sounds daunting? Well, OK, let’s divide that by 30. Oh, that gives 1667 words a day. Now I’m fussy, I like round numbers or nothing. So 1500 words a day it is. OK, this means my overall word count becomes 45,000, but this is merely a minimum. I could still hit 50,000 by the end of this. Who knows what might happen?

The reason I broke this down was to make it less daunting. 1500 words a day isn’t actually a lot. My Sven vs. The Movies reviews are between 500 and 1000 words (with Star Wars being an exception due to it being 3 films), and I can write those reasonably quickly, so why can’t I do that for a novel?

And it’s worked so far. I’m very much on target at this point, to the point where I feel like taking a break from it today and doing a bit of work on other things that have been neglected. In trying to work the novel around my job, I’ve found I’ve had less time for the movies for Sven vs. The Movies, or I’ve let my Youtube LPs slip even more than usual. But I have the next two days off, so I can easily catch up.

But I’m amazed at some other people’s methods of taking on this challenge. I encountered a Twitter of a guy who was pushing to write the full 50,000 words by the end of this week, to which I ask “why?” Surely the whole point of the exercise is to get a draft done in one month, then edit it and tweak it later? Or am I the one missing the point here? There are also people bemoaning their “poor” word counts so far of something like 20,000. It’s only the first week of four! What the hell? I’ve only reached just shy of 11,000, and I’m proud of that.

I suppose it’s just interesting to see how people take on this challenge, and how differently people try and push themselves to do it. I take the slow and steady “breaking it down” route, and then edit it later; others want to blitz it in as little time as possible.

So is anyone reading this participating in NaNoWriMo? How do you go about tackling this challenge? Let me know in the comments!

Dogger, Rising slowly

Can someone please tell me why iPod menus insist on lagging like crazy? Oh, Apple, you and your silly ideas of style over usefulness! When will you learn? (Having said that, I do love my iPod and wouldn't change it for another mp3 player just...because)

Anyway, thought I'd write another blog into the ether of the interwebs in hopes of entertaining a few passing strangers. I've said this before, but I will say it again. I aim to write in this daily from now on. I mean it, guys! Don't try and stop me!

Today I was reading a new instruction book that I bought. I buy many instruction books about all sorts of topics with the good intentions of saying "THIS will make me awesome! I'll buy this book on car maintenance, become a mechanic and then become filthy stinking rich! YEAH!"

Then I abandon the book and play some video games or watch Lost. By the way, I'm currently watching ALL of Lost, right from the beginning. I've made it to Season 4 but I haven't seen any of Seasons 5 or 6. So if anyone DARES tell me what happens in those seasons, expect to wake up dead tomorrow. Yes, you heard me.

Anyway, yes. Tangents. I buy instruction books and then forget about them shortly afterwards. Recently I bought a book called The Remixer's Bible: Build Better Beats, because I'd like to think I have the capabilities of being a fantastic music producer despite having about as much understanding of music theory as a polar bear understands how to make a cocktail.

In this book, there was a section on sampling and the legal wrangles that occur, namely "sample anything copyrighted and the RIAA will kill your entire family, but if you're British the BPI will just tut at you disapprovingly then call the hounds on you". Not quite in those words, but you get the idea. Amusingly, it mentioned that Chrissie Hynde gave Garbage full permission to her ass once, which naturally will get real person fanfic writers writing Chrissie Hynde x Shirley Manson erotica, but whatever.

The important thing is, it got me thinking about copyright law. No rants, it actually raised an interesting question in my mind.

Is the Shipping Forecast under copyright?

The Shipping Forecast, for those who don't know, is the ultimate chillout broadcast. Basically, BBC Radio 4, at some crazy hour of the morning, broadcast the sound of a very posh man/woman reading out place names in a very soothing rhythm in order to help people get to sleep. Also, apparently it helps sailors not die horribly in a storm or something, but that's not important. The important thing is that it's so soothing and amazing that it's been sampled and referenced by a range of musicians from Blur to Kate Bush to....that other guy. Yeah. His version was the best.

But my point is, if you sampled it, would you have to get permission from Auntie Beeb? Or because it's issued by The Maritime And Coastguard Agency (they're a government department involved in helping sailors not die in a horrible boating accident or something, but that's not important), does this make it publicly-owned? I know that government issued propaganda educational material is generally public domain, so why not The Shipping Forecast?

Does anyone know? Seriously, this is important. My life depends on knowing the answer to this. Help me!

In other news, I'm unofficially participating in NaNoWriMo, although in my case it'd be InternaNoWriMo, but that's complicating things. I aim to have the first draft of a novel by 30th November. I shall hopefully report my findings here. Which should be fun.