Once more unto the breach!

It's almost November again.  And you know what that means.  That's right. No shaving for an entire month!

Oh, and I'm also going to try to write 50k words in 30 days.

Yep, NaNoWriMo is upon us once more. And, even though I have failed several times in the past, I am going to give it another go. But this time will be different.  Why, you ask?  Because this time I'm doing something different.

I have always kind of been a "pantser" when it comes to writing.  I start with a cast of characters in my head, some general idea of the "world" involved, and a basic plot. I know what I want to happen by "The End" but not in a detailed way.

This time, though, I am going to be working from a relatively detailed outline. I started by writing a one-sentence description of each chapter. And now I am about 2/3 of the way through expanding those into 1-2 paragraph expositions. Interestingly, I have added a few chapters as I have gone along, and now it's a much more complete story. I have a feeling that, when I finally finish the final draft, the book will probably weigh in much heavier than the projected 50k word rough I will write next month.

In short, I'm going to write this book like a real* writer.

The story is one that I have flirted with for many months. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have mentioned it here a few times. Basically orc mercenaries in space. And I even came up with some ways to integrate the magic and high-tech without it seeming forced. I think it'll be cool. And really, that's why we write anyways, right? Because we write the stories we want to read.

I even started a Facebook group for a few of us to post word counts and try to keep each other motivated. Heck, my wife is even going to try it. You know, among all of the other plates she's spinning (what with running for governor and all).

I'll probably post about my progress here as well, so stay tuned!

*"real" as in "more successful than me"