Greetings!
It is December 2nd.
I spent November poking occasionally at the trailer, but mostly working on a different project -- my National Novel-Writing Month (AKA "NaNoWriMo") novel. The challenge of NNWM is to write a 50,000-word "novel" in 30 days (average "real" novel length is actually closer to 100,000). One can do it alone, or meet at regular "write-ins" with other writers (sometimes as many as 50+ in a room). It's a lot of writing in a month. It was my fifth try and the first time I WON! Yay!
Somewhere in the late-middle of the month, already with as many words as I'd made in the entire month last year, I decided to try to ride the tide of determination/obsession out of November and into December, changing my project goal from 50K words to Full Rough Cut of S&B. "Thirty days and nights of literary abandon" is NNWM's slogan -- could I do something similarly crazy to really get S&B done in 2012??!
There are some key differences that make transferring the experience not exactly easy. For one thing, NNWM is an international event in which 10's of thousands of people are participating. There are forums and buddies and e-mail pep talks from "real" writers, and there are those "write-ins." If one doesn't want to go it alone, one has many, many opportunities to connect with people who are doing _the same thing_. Psychologically, this is a big boost -- misery loves company and all that.
The other main difference is that 1) writing 2) from scratch 3) for yourself 4) for a project that others may or may not ever see is an entirely different task than 1) editing 2) existing footage 3) on a collaborative project 4) that a lot of people will see. Writing from scratch "with abandon" is not editing existing footage that others have some stake in.
NONETHELESS. There are overlaps! And I have decided to do my best!
There are some things that might interfere: job-getting, for example.
But I'm going to try to think of it as an average of a page and three-quarters a day x 24 days. The page-count system may not pan out as viable - the scenes are so different from each other - will present very distinct challenges. But I figure, it is at least a way to think about how much work it is, and to gauge at the end of each week how much progress I've made (four 6-day weeks = 24 days) -- it should be 10.5 pages per week.
NOW: let's all acknowledge that this might be IMPOSSIBLE. If I were able to do 10.5 pages per week, would I not have? So I dunno. But NNWM has inspired me, so I am going to TRY!
In service of this end, some kind and generous Friends from my Quaker meeting have offered each to call me once a week: one on Mondays, one on Wednesdays, and one on Fridays. I am hoping that the combination of guilt and support, company and venting outlet will keep me going!
YOU TOO, whoever you are, if you want me to succeed at this, are invited to e-mail me, FB post to me, or comment here at any point to let me know that you even know I am doing this and that you care. WHOEVER YOU ARE.
I will post here regularly throughout the month to keep you apprised of how ludicrous this effort turns out to be.
So - until next time...
Peace,
Rachel
PS - The trailer is on hold except when I might work on it as inspired in the month. It might be easier to do once I have a whole rough cut, anyway.
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