If the Shoe Doesn't Fit

For NaNoWriMo this year I had what I thought was a killer concept and a title to go along with it: The Ten Plagues of Moses Ryan. I conceived of a techno-thriller about a rookie FBI agent, Moe Ryan, swept up in a race to prevent a malevolent cyber-virus from wreaking ten modern plagues on the world - Blood, Frogs, Cattle Disease, the whole schmear.

Then, as the reality of the three act structure common to all dramatic narrative since Aristotle sank in, I realized there was a really good reason so few novels had the phrase "Ten Plagues" in the title. It's really hard to shoehorn ten epic disasters into three or four dramatic climaxes.

So I'm gonna have to modify the ten plagues theme. Maybe some of the plagues will be minor hiccups along the way, not huge set-pieces, like blowing up the Hoover Dam... hmm...

It's Just a Novel, for Pete's Sake!

In the giddy gallop to get going, a summary of sobering advice from someone in the biz:

1. Take it seriously
2. Don't expect what you write to be brilliant
3. Push yourself to go further
4. Be smart with revisions
5. Have a life

That last one's the kicker, especially if you don't want to spend December sleeping on the couch :)

Thanks to Soil-Net.com for the thundering photo!

And They're Off!

After a deep breath and an "OMG, can't do this," banged out 359 words in 30 minutes on the bus this morning.

Lessee, that works out to 718 words per hour, divided into 50,000, is 69.63 hours - that's about 2 hours, 20 minutes and 15 seconds per day for the next 30 days of NaNoWriMo.

I can do it.

Maybe.