Nutty about games!

Well, the time has come - tomorrow I start writing my 50,000 word novel! At the same time I will be beginning a month-long almost total internet ban (apart from this blog, email once a week, and Nanowrimo forums if I need a proverbial kick up the bum once in a while).

Now, let’s get one thing straight - this is not a novella as I know some of you may point out. I write for kids and a 50k first draft will be a fantastic building block to work on, should I not want to rip it to shreds, chew on it, burn it, use it as toilet paper…you get the picture.

A minor problem. Just a teeny one.

I still have no plot. Nothing. Hence my very short blog today.

In the words of Douglas Adams - don’t panic!

Yes, I’m fretting again. Although not about Nanowrimo. Well, sort of.

I’m in a panic because I know I am not going to be able to finish the Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion ‘Mask of the Betrayer‘ before Nano starts! Not unless I drop all notion of figuring out a plot and characters for my novel before the Nano start date anyway. I’m not quite sure why I started the expansion having only just got around to finishing vanilla NwN2 after the third time through (I have said it before, but my attention span can be bad unless I find something very interesting or really immerse myself in the storyline). I think it was partly due to my upset at the ending of NwN2 and my hope of finding out what happened to all my comrades, but all I have learned is that the expansion is as brilliant and addictive as the original game - which is a bummer when you are about to write a novel and have no plot to speak of!

I’ve stuck to the advice ‘plan one week before Nano’ like glue, and my time is up tomorrow. Meaning tonight may in fact be my last night of gaming for a whole five weeks! Never in history - alright, since I was around eight years old and Dad purchased our lovely Acorn Electron - have I refrained from playing a game for such a long period! 

How will I cope? Do gaming withdrawal symptoms exist? Am I really going to be able to concentrate soley on my Nano storyline for the next five weeks or so?

I know what you are going to say - get a life! Well, gaming is a lifestyle. I have grown up with games, watched the technology develop, and have seen them evolve into something I could never have imagined possible. I still remember the time I would dream of games being ‘realistic’; literally, at night I would lie in bed and visualise myself living in a game of the future. Playing Unreal for the very first time was a dream come true, it was everything I imagined and more. To this day I am still in awe of modern games.

Would I like to do what many Brits do and waste money going ‘out on the lash’ on a Friday and Saturday night, dressed in a ridiculously short skirt, smothered in makeup and stinking of cheap perfume, surrounded by kebab-reeking letches who accuse you of being a lesbian or insult your appearance when you turn them down? Or crouched in a bunker in the middle of a firefight, explosions sounding all around me, waiting to snipe the enemy when they try to capture my point; going on an epic journey to cure the world of some evil, smiting enemies and hurling fireballs at my foes; navigating the depths of the universe in a spaceship entirely at my command - all from the safety of my own home? I’ll settle for the latter.

Don’t get me wrong - I do go out. I do have some form of social life even if, having had two children in a rather short period, it is at an amoebic stage. In future I will go out more (as long as we can afford the babysitter), but I will make sure that my repertoire of friends consists mainly of avid gamers, those who play games quite often, people who occasionally game, and those who have gamed, in that order.

Okay, so I jest - but it sure would be nice to meet more gamers genuinely interested in friendship once in a while! Also, I have trouble socialising with those of my own age, especially women. I do think I am meeting the wrong people, because I find that I have almost nothing in common with the majority of my acquaintances. They are generally people who, when faced with an adult female who likes nothing more than to climb to the top of a huge climbing frame on a visit to Monkey World and make monkey sounds (pics will be here as soon as my Dad pulls his finger out and sends them), would immediately summon the ‘men in white coats’ to remove me to a padded cell.

Perhaps it is simply time I grew up and started to enjoy talking about the latest anti-wrinkle product, mulling over which curtain patterns go with teracotta furniture, and discussing the finer points of cake decorating?

Anyway, I don’t care if you think I am a gaming geek. I wear the title with pride, and hope to still be ‘geeking it up’ when I am old and grey.

Now, on with the fun…

Browsing the Nanowrimo forum entitled Age Group: 20’s I noticed a distinct lack of those who, like myself, are in their late (very late in my case!) twenties, or those who have children. I decided a new thread was in order and expected no replies. Wrong! Out of the woodwork come a whole host of people; many with children, others with pets who they would like to believe are as demanding as children (I beg to differ!) but all with very busy lives and not very much time at all to write.

This brings me to the question - why are we doing this? I know that 50,000 words may not seem like very much when compared to full size adult novels of 200,000 words (and the rest) but I assure you, to write that amount of words in a mere 30 days is no mean feat when your life is a neverending cycle of mess and chaos!

I currently have an overflowing washbasket of clothes I am now unable to dry thanks to cold, rainy days and lack of a tumble dryer;  you can no longer see our lounge carpet due to the wall to wall toys, and no matter how many times I pick them up they magically reappear on the floor in seconds. From dawn until dusk I am asked neverending questions such as “I want a drink”, “I’m hungry”, “I need a wee”….not to mention my youngest child’s very cute but endless repetition of the word ‘Mummy’.

After the boys are in bed and settled, around 8pm, comes the ultimate obstacle - my boyfriend. He likes nothing more than to sit next to me on his computer with music on full blast, or American dramas complete with horrific murders galore blaring out on his speakers, the ear-piercing gun and bomb blasts when he is playing Battlefield 2142, and worst of all - Skype. I have always said he would make an amazingly good town crier or foghorn because damn he is loud! I also think perhaps slightly deaf as he truly doesn’t believe he is so noisy. When you spend every day with children you truly learn what noise is!

Others hoping to complete Nano this year have full time jobs to contend with as well as children. Some also have the added stress of school, and others personal difficulties. I really wish them all the best because I know I am going to find this difficult and I don’t work or study right now.

But why the struggle for so many? I have to admit, I don’t know. We all have our reasons. I am doing Nano because I have always wanted to write a book and never really got around to doing it properly, and I didn’t manage last time around. I want to prove to myself that I can do it. Okay…and perhaps because I am just a little bit bonkers. Is that a good enough excuse? It is for me.

A marvellous thread on the Nanowrimo forums today included a quote by A. A. Milne which I think is the perfect way to explain why I won’t be telling most people about my novel.

“…you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

This reminded me of a time when people started asking me about my first (still unfinished) novel. Answering truthfully “It’s about a boy who lives underground and is left behind when a monster comes to get them and all but him escape through a portal” doesn’t really do justice to what is floating around in my head. Putting it bluntly, it seems pretty crappy!

Dwelling on my response is what eventually put me off writing it, but reading the thread on Nano I think I may give it a go….when I have finished this one, of course.

I beg to differ.

Those familiar with Nanowrimo should recognise the title as being that of the ‘official’ Nanowrimo book. Now, I certainly don’t have a plot yet. Well, not one worthy of discussion anyway. I certainly see this as a problem!

Perhaps I should grab a copy…

I suppose I had better start this some time sooner rather than later, so a bit hello to visitors to my blog!

From now until December, and perhaps beyond (more on that later) I will primarily be using this blog to document my progress in Nanowrimo 2007. For those who don’t know what Nanowrimo is, it stands for ‘National Novel Writing Month’, which is based in the USA. Check out the website here. The name is a little inaccurate as people from all around the world now take part, but Wonowrimo doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Anyway, starting the 1st November (at midnight for some, although being a full time Mum I don’t have that luxury) my task will be to write a 50,000 word ‘novel’ in a month. More a novella I guess, but as I will most likely be writing children’s fiction those 50k words will be a pretty large chunk of my book.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself but if I do win Nanowrimo (complete 50k words) then the following month is Nanofimo (’National Novel Finishing Month’, associated but not affiliated with Nanowrimo), then March is Nanoedmo (’National Novel Editing Month’, again associated but not affiliated with Nanowrimo). I may be around for quite some time yet!

Anyway…there it is. Come back again some time; I promise to make regular updates.