NaNoWriMo and The Great Discovery
November is known as National Novel Writing Month. In this month, anyone who has ever thought of writing a novel can join this community that tackles the creative process by aiming for a 50,000 word goal by the 30th of November deadline.
This year was the first year that I could pledge to writing a novel as I did not have exams filling up my schedule. So when the month started, I started writing a story called Dot.
The idea was fresh in my head, influenced by the recent games and TV shows that I've seen. I based the elements of the story on things in my life. This would help me to write about what I know, while still telling an entirely different story.
If you look at my previous short films, SRH and Linear, they both have a theme of exploring different types of realities. This is a theme that I like writing about and therefore I decided to give this "seemingly normal town" a strange occurrence that changes the way which humans live (or experience life). The appearance of 'the dots' has started in Cape Town and is spreading throughout the world at a rapid pace. The idea is that a small red dot appears on a persons left arm. It exists solely to act as an early warning system for death. A few weeks after their first appearance it was public knowledge that a dot appears exactly 24 hours before you die. This changes the way people think of death and affects the ways in which they live their lives. This is the background story for the world that my characters will live in.
At first, I intended to develop the idea. I actually started thinking about how Dot could be branched to become a transmedia narrative. A lot of different events can be relayed through different forms. A main web series could tell the overarching story of who invented the 'dots'-system. The story of a character going through the process of getting a dot can be told in a series of tweets posted in a range of 24 hours.
This stayed in the back of my mind and never developed further. When November came around and I thought up Ricky. Ricky would live in this world and become my 50,000-word novel. Ricky, starting his new life at university, is excited about what the future might bring. His excitement is cut short when a mysterious orange dot appears on his right arm. What does this orange dot mean? Will he die in 24 hours just like everyone who has gotten the red dot? Or is this maybe an early warning for something else?
Look at this cover I made *read: procrastination*
And that is as far as I got...
Apart from writing an introduction scene of about five thousand words, I could not get myself to write down what happens to Ricky. I was excited about the idea and I had events for Ricky to experience but I just couldn't write it down in descriptive 'walls of text'. Quite a few times I forced myself to sit down and write, only to be sidetracked with what might happen in Ricky's future. Once I had an idea, the problem was getting Ricky to that future point. Writing what needs to happen to get there just took way too long. So I stopped.
The next time that I would sit down for a writing session, Ricky's future would have evolved even more and his present would still be where I left it. It was therefore more of a stretch to get Ricky to his future plot points. Then I stopped again... *rinse and repeat*
The Great Discovery... novels are not for me. I simply do not enjoy writing long things. Keeping it short and writing dialogue is what I like. This is why I favour tiny and short films. Glimpses into one part of a possibly longer story. Or simply one story being told in a short form. I still enjoy reading novels... when I do read. I just don't think I will ever write one.
Excerpt from the introduction chapter for Dot:
Ricky couldn’t fall asleep. He lay tossing and turning in his bed, thinking about the sharp pain from earlier. He keeps on telling himself that he shouldn’t be worried because the pain is gone. If the pain were still there or if he wasn’t able to move his hand earlier, that would be a reason to worry. Thinking about it made him feel uneasy, almost as if it was one of those occurrences that you know you should never think about but you just can’t help it.
He revisits every second of that short event. He thought about the strange feeling that he mistook for excitement, unsure whether or not it started in his stomach or his chest. He decides that it started in his stomach, what difference does it make anyway? He follows the feeling through his body once more. The butterflies in his stomach fluttering against the inside of his skin. They start moving upwards slowly. When it reaches his chest a breath of fresh air mysteriously appears within his lungs. He didn’t even need to breath, he couldn’t, it all happened so fast. He replays the next part in his mind’s eye and follows the trickle of what felt like static electricity jumping on his shoulder pulling the fresh air through his body. The hair raising on his arm as the shock runs down to his hand. His elbow straitens instinctively at the same time his hand freezes. He recalls the moment when the feeling turned into a blade piercing his wrist. He stops and sits up in his bed. “Get your shit together Rickus,” he tells himself, “It’s all in your head. You’re just nervous for tomorrow, that’s all.”
The next morning he wakes up feeling tired. He only had about three hours of sleep. He sits up in bed and groggily looks at his wrist once more.
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