One Hundred And One Things

All over the world, November is National Novel Writing Month. I don't know why they haven't made it 'International Novel Writing Month' yet - perhaps it's just not as catchy. Anyway, I'm not doing that this year. Originally I intended to use it to complete goal 16, 'Write first draft of "The Slowest Elopement", or another novel featuring Phyl Merrick'. I'm horribly busy, though, and, while that wouldn't usually stop me, I've got another big writing project already on the go, with a rather tighter deadline than 'when I get round to finishing it'.

Said project is the Femslash Big Bang over at LiveJournal. My story is a crossover featuring the illegitimate daughter of Irene Adler and Rupert of Hentzau, with a plot just about as full of cross-dressing, swashbuckling and intrigue as you might expect. I've been working at this on and off over the past few months, and have almost 3000 words down and a vague idea of a plot. The minimum wordcount is 20,000 words, which feels about right for this story. It's due in early December. I've joined the picowrimo community for general cheerleading and encouragement, and to keep myself vaguely accountable without boring my regular readers to death. That's what I'm doing this November, then.

But, so that 101 Things doesn't fall entirely by the wayside (oh, I know this would count towards goal 63, but it does seem a little over the top) I'm making November my 'write 1001 words a day' month.

Goal 64, in fact.

Those 30030 words will not all go into the Big Bang. Some of them are going into this post. Some will go into other posts on here (I've got a few things to write up...) and then there's things like Yuletide. I'm still dithering over whether to sign up for it; based on past form, I probably will, but it does rather depend on when nominations open, when they close, how I'm getting on with this big project, and whether other, offline, things kick up.

Things I'm counting: fiction (whether fanfic or original - because you never know, I might revisit 'These Three Remain' if I'm running short of inspiration on other things); blog posts (here or on my main journal); things that remain hidden on 750words.com (more on that later) or in my private journal.

Things I'm not counting: anything to do with work; comments on blog posts; forum postings; letters or emails to friends - that sort of thing.

How am I keeping up with it? I mentioned 750words.com. This is a site to which adelheid introduced me when I was making my 101 list and first thought about this goal. The intention of this goal is to get me into a habit of writing something substantial every day. That's the idea behind this site. It's very low pressure; it just gives you a space to write and tells you whether you've done your 750 words or not. (This number was chosen, allegedly, because it's about how many words you would get onto three sides of A4. I haven't tried this.) I went for the slightly higher goal of 1001... because I came up with the goal before I heard of the site, and because it fits better with the overall project.

It's been a while since I logged on, so I can't remember whether there's a way for you to track how I'm getting on. I know you can't read my actual words, and I'm not sure you can see how many I've written, either. I'll fiddle around later and see if I can work it out. At any rate, I'll be giving you regular updates on this 101 blog. Not too regular, though - I know how irritating it gets when everyone on your reading list is doing NaNoWriMo and is telling you their word count every five minutes. You can also track me on my Health Month profile (why yes, I am counting writing as a healthy exercise; why not?) which will at least tell you whether I've done my 1001 words. Perhaps I'll get one of those ticker things, too. The possibilities are endless...

I wrote two stories for this year's Yuletide Challenge, and both of them came out at well over 1000 words.

They were We Climbed The Matterhorn, in Swallows and Amazons, and The Theory and Practice of Fairy-Godmothering, Discussed in an Appropriate Environment, Namely, Over Tea, in the Fairy Tales section.

I do like Yuletide.

Why do I want to do this?

I think it's very good for me to play around in other writers' universes. With any luck this will also prompt me to finish stuff, rather than have it lurking on my hard drive for evermore.


How will I know I've done this?

I'll have six completed stories, of at least one thousand words apiece, based in a universe that is not of my own creating. Stories written for other people, prompts, and challenges such as Yuletide count, as does finishing anything I've already started, provided that I add the thousand words in the course of this challenge.


I'll record this in this journal, but the resulting works will be posted at the Archive Of Our Own.

The Works

We Climbed the Matterhorn

The Theory and Practice of Fairy-Godmothering, Discussed in an Appropriate Environment, Namely, Over Tea

Transferrable Skills

Bats in the Belfry

Chicken Supreme