Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?

[korova.livejournal.com]

Indiana checking in here. (And I'm always on the lookout for fellow Hoosiers, so if you're from the great land of corn, cars, and basketball, greetings!)

So my name's Sarah. I'm a sixteen year old high school senior, and this is my third NaNo year. Hopefully it will be my second win; I was painfully close to succeeding last year but alas, it was not meant to be.

My first (and currently only win boo) NaNo was essentially a really freakishly long series of conversations. It actually worked out surprisingly well.

Last year I went the more traditional route with a sort of a weird mafia debauched catholic school drama thing which I ended up totally adoring and plan on finishing.

This year, I'm torn between a tale of Russian cryptographers during the Cold War and the chronicle of the bizarre relationships of rather poor bohemian-esque catacomb dwellers in sixties Paris.

A little about my planning style: Does anyone else HAVE to create their characters and solidify their physical descriptions before they can even start the story? For me to be able to write, my characters must be defined and have a history; unfortunately, this can often distract from the actual process of writing-like-crazy itself.

Best of luck, everyone!

Comments

[thatpirategirl.livejournal.com]

Actually I'm hoping to go to Indiana for school next year, at the University of Evansville! ^^ I visited last year, and I think it's really awesome up there. (More awesome than Florida, anyway)

Personally I like the sound of the catacomb bohemians best! It sounds like a fun idea.

And yep, I have to know every little thing about my characters before November 1, or I'm lost. I can improvise the plot as I go, but unless I know my characters fully, I'm likely to whip out a crew of uninteresting stock characters and the whole thing fails. But I spend October working on that, with the aid of my amazing, life-saving character development sheet (http://www.geocities.com/poetess47/100questions.html). I like to fill it out interview-style, like my character is talking to Jay Leno or something. ^_^

[korova.livejournal.com]

Southern Indiana is so pretty! I live waaaay up north sort of in between Fort Wayne and Chicagoland, but we go down to Bloomington quite frequently. :)

I quite agree; I'm leaning towards writing about the cataphiles. They're bound to be entertaining and weird.

And thank you for that link! That's going to be a lifesaver when it's all filled out. ^^

[korova.livejournal.com]

I wish I was able to do that, though; my planning can slow the spontaneity of NaNo and then I get frustrated if things aren't going as planned. XD

And is that a Sandman(<3!) icon that I spy?

[dandelionpretty.livejournal.com]

I'm known for creating my characters and their histories before anything else. I usually get so caught up in it that I never get to actually writing a story. It's a bad habit that I've gotta kick.