Ian Philpot

NaNoWriMo 2012First, let me say how horribly unprepared I feel about NaNoWriMo this year. The novel I’m writing is the third idea I’ve had, and I landed on it just over a week ago. I tried taking time to outline characters, but I couldn’t even decide on their names. Earlier this week, I managed laying out the first ten chapters. Hopefully that can carry me for a while.

Next, let me tell you about the story. It’s called Day of Calamity and it’s like Occupy Wall Street meets Newsies meets Donnie Darko. When bad things happen, most people try to protect themselves and their interests. But what happens when that meets the generation that’s becoming adults in today’s world? Calamity.

Speaking of which, I spent a lot of my first day of writing in a struggle with my narrative. After consulting my wife and mother (who I think are both great writers themselves), I switched from telling the story in third-person to first-person. So I did some editing on day one—a big no-no for a NaNoWriMo veteran like myself. But the result was an immediate outpouring of words. And that’s what matters most this month.

Finally, I’m going to mention my favorite part of NaNo Day 1: Google+. I’m not sure how it happened, but someone added me to a NaNo circle on Google+ last month and I added that circle to my circles. The community of writers on there is incredible! I already know it’s going to make a huge difference in my effort this year, and I love it!

That’s all for now. I’ve got some writing to do!

Links:
My NaNoWriMo profile — Read about my novel, add me as a writing buddy, follow my progress
My Google+ profile — Add me to your circles or let me know if you want to be added to my NaNoWriMo circle
My NaNoWriMo circle  — Add it to your circles