Sunday, November 4, 2007

NaPlWriMo?

I'd heard of NaNoWriMo before and now it seems that authors of other genres are jumping on the bandwagon. For dramatists, there's now NaPlWriMo...write a play of at least 75 pages between 12:00 AM November 1 and 11:59 PM November 30.

I'd be tempted to become an official NaPlWriMo writer, because that's basically what I need to do for my senior thesis play...write it this month. (I've been slacking off, to my chagrin.) However, I don't qualify, because I've been thinking about this play and doing research for years, I have some scenes already started, and I don't really feel like "reporting to the forums every week on my process." Maybe that's meant to be encouraging...but writing's always been a solitary activity for me. I get self-conscious. And also, paranoid that other writers are going to steal my ideas.

Think of me, then, as the "shadow" NaPlWriMo participant. It will get done--and it'll be more than 75 pages, because it needs to be that length--but I know I can do it. Last December I wrote 40 pages in 4 days. Fueled by lots of caffeine and greasy diner food.

Now I've just got to motivate myself to plug away at it. And, preferably, fall in love with my play so deeply that I can't not write it. Pep talks encouraged in the comments!

2 comments:

DL said...

Hi !
I run naplwrimo and i still think you should join us , even though you don't exactly fit the category !
We don't turn writers away and the support in the forums is invaluable !
As far as the weekly report goes, you can say as little or as much as you want. Ie... if you just want to say : "i am still here and i have x amount of pages." that's enough. we can't force anyone to reveal their process, neither do we want to force anyone !
join us !
http://www.naplwrimo.org/forums

Marissa Skudlarek said...

Thanks for the encouragement...ok! I'll take the plunge! See you over at naplwrimo.org...