NaNoWriMo

[aquafortis]

Just wondering which of us is insane enough to be planning to participate in NaNoWriMo...besides Donal and Eli, of course, who I'm sure must be involved...

I'm going to attempt it, but I'm fairly pessimistic about my chances of finishing this time, since I'll be out of the country for over a week. Eh.

[Donal Murphy]

Yes the madness runs strong in the Irish. Myself and Eli are ML's again for Dublin this year. I'm sure Neil will be attempting it. He'd better, otherwise there will be trouble. HEAR THAT STRUTHERS!

I think Issy is pretending to not think about doing it. Tadmack will probably do it in three days in between writing 1500 blog posts, flickr fictions, actual real live novels and taking pictures of bread.

Valsha is always there too, like part of the furniture so she is.

Right I think that's everyone suitably antagonised, my work is done.

[aquafortis]

God, you guys crack me up, especially Donal. I needed that this morning, as this morning's already been crap so far.

So the madness comes from the Irish genes--I see. Makes sense since my maternal grandmother was nuts; guess it must be those Robinsons back in my bloodline. (Or "Robbinson" as my grandmother changed it to...long and bizarre story).

I agree--I think Tadmack is superhuman. I think you're all superhuman. I'm trying not to think about doing it while knowing full well that I'm going to attempt it anyway. By way of planning, I have a paragraph of notes scribbled on the back of a used page from my pocket appointment calendar. I'm sort of afraid that if I formalize them in any way, like writing them out neatly on a real piece of paper, that I'll be making a commitment I can't possibly live up to. As Rob occasionally says, "don't write checks your butt can't cash," whatever the hell that means.

[Donal Murphy]

I never want to meet the man who can cash checks with his ass. I mean sure, a money filled ass would be great, but think of how bad your wallet would smell.

Sarah your family tree sounds fascinatingly bizarre. One of the truly wonderful aspects of America is that almost everyone seems to be in possession of a mad, multi-tentacled octopus of a family history with three dozen different cultures, ethnicities and various tribes, languages and traditions colliding at various points. Oh yes and everyone's Irish too.

[aquafortis]

I have to add that my grandmother's insanity is probably not related to any Irish heritage but most likely because she comes from a long line of petty criminals.

And, yes, if my family tree were an actual tree it would be one of those weird grafted half-orange, half-lemon thingies. I can count at least six or seven different verifiable ethnicities in my background. There might be more, but anything the above grandmother said must be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, for years I thought I had some kind of distant Welsh heritage, but we later found out that's utter speculation. Nobody actually knows.

Okay, I must stop procrastinating and actually work.

[TadMack]

Just for the record: not Irish. Not in any way, shape or form. And I know DNA jumps and once you hook up with someone genes rub off and stuff -- but still. No Irish. Not even Scots. (But Greek? Apparently yes. I know -- Still shaking my head over that one.)

And, "Don't let your mouth write checks that your butt can't cash," has to be one of the all-time semi-Southern, "Huh?" phrases I heard growing up. Who knew it was one of those Rob heard in Stockton, too?!

[TadMack]

I am SO not going to dignify the above response.
Taking pictures of bread...

I suck at NaNoWriMo. I don't know how to deal with time -- yet somehow I can manage deadlines, editors, actual work, etc., but the writing in a month, and the counting of words? I cannot do it. I am, shall we say, craptastic in the attempt. It's a great way to get new material, yes. But couldn't I just, I don't, fiddle around with outlines for a month or two first?

Actually, the real challenge: having someone else CHOOSE ONE OF YOUR FICKTIONS AND MAKE YOU WRITE AN ACTUAL NOVEL OUT OF IT.

Throwdown, Mr. Murphy. I challenge you to actually turn one of your shorts into a proper novel.
And heck -- Neil, who is the King of the Unfinished? You too, are challenged, my good man.

A.F., if you want to pick one of my Ficktions/Flickrs that you've liked in the past, maybe that's a place for me to start... otherwise, I don't think I'm going to do it.

[Neil Struthers]

King of the Unfinished sounds like a pretty good character for a NaNoWriMo novel.

[Donal Murphy]

That's a good challenge Tadmack, unfortunately my Nano plans are already at an advanced state. Plots and characters and things are bulging out of various notebooks at me.

I think you should try out that one about the oneiroseers and the dreaming spheres you wrote a while back.

[Neil Struthers]

For the last eleven or so months I've been saying to myself, no, I won't get myself all worked up by trying to do NaNoWriMo again in 2007. All it does, see, is stress me out, send me into a whirling spiral of despair, and kick my ego right in the knackers. I can generally stick this process of stress/despair/ego ablation for about two weeks; then I find a distraction and give up.

Things are a bit different this year I suppose; I have the Temple of Clarity now, and I'm that bit older and wiser than before. I've also been secretly planning (and trying to hide my plans from myself) what I might do for the month. It would have to be entirely open, ridiculous, possibly nonsensical, a sort of glorious 50,000-word whimsy...set in space.

I don't know! It feels like the right thing to do.

Okay then. Decision made. I'll join in, if only to ablate the old ego that bit more.

[Neil Struthers]

Of course now, I feel it--an internal changing-of-the-guard already--my writer ego bubbling up and whispering, "why, it'll be the greatest tale ever told!"

DOWN, WRITER EGO, down and back into that weird electric soup from whence you came.

[Donal Murphy]

You can do it Neil, I have faith and a stick.

[TadMack]

...the stick being the important bit...

Um.
Okay.
I'm officially NOT thinking about thinking about it.
Just saying.