I had done quite a bit of planning in 2004 on my last novel, end of July for starters, then another patch in the second half of September and into October.

Here’s what I wrote on 2004-10-16:

Topic: NaNoWriMo?

Of course, as soon as I have one plan, another arrives.

What if — and this is a great big honkin’ what if — I tried to finish a rough draft of the book by November, for the NaNoWriMo competition? For a 60K-word novel, this would mean 2000 words a day.

That’s pretty crazy sounding. It would mean, I suppose, planning for the 2 weeks left in October. I would also want to try writing 2000 words on a given day before it starts and see if it was possible, if I’m capable of doing that. Of course there’s a difference between creating 2000 words in a day and doing that again and again for 30 days. And if you miss a day…

It’s an intriguing idea. I’ll want to do some reading first on the NaNoWriMo site, re-read the FAQs, etc.

I’m not limited to doing this book — I could do something totally different, new. But I already have quite a bit of preparation completed for this one.

Some tests, some random ideas, then the NaNoWriMo journaling started in earnest with November 1st. But first, this came on 2004-10-28:

Topic: Words, words, words…

Says the Melancholy Dane.

So, therefore, we arrive at the moment of truth. Countdown to beginning the trek of 50,000 steps. ;) Four days to go, four days to find some time to plan. Four days to plan.

I spent the next 3-4 days planning outlines for (at that time) four sections, which later became five.

The month flies by, then on 2004-11-20 I screwed up my back moving furniture (something I’m still dealing with the after effects of), and I’m reflecting on this:

So, by the end of the day — fates and my back willing — I will have finished NaNoWriMo’s requisite 50,000 words.

Now that’s some inspiration, eh? :)

I’m not going to try to write my current book in the month of March, just to be clear. ;D If it were to happen, I’d be ecstatic, but instead I’m going to shoot for something more realistic. Just what that is I’m not for certain yet, but I mean to start writing in earnest on 2005-03-01, giving me five days to plan. Next Tuesday. Whoops, I mean three days. ;)

Wow, that thought spawned a bit of nervous laughter.

There’s never a good time to start a new novel. There are always reasons not to.

There’s also no time like the present, eh?

Now if only I knew who my characters were…

You know, seeing this /. article, Is the iPod Shuffle Playing Favorites? my thought is, “Yo mama played favorites with me last night.” But then it’s late and I’m giddy and that’s a stupid, inflammatory story. :)

Wikka Wakka won’t let you have page names that are numbers, such as 2005 or 2005-01 or journal/2005 for that matter. Bo-gus. Otherwise it’s pretty cool.

PHPwiki lets you do numbers, as do most as far as I’ve seen (save the original WikiWiki, but then they don’t allow anything but CamelCase). I’m going to go looking for why not.

No word on why that I could find in a cursory scan. Phooey.

More’s the better to write my own system.

Must resist urge to write my own wiki system today. ;) Notanda will be the shiznit for my purposes.