Oh... er... that time of year again...

Right, yes, only a few days until November which means that National Novel Writing Month is upon us. I've been meeting up with fellow Oxfordian NaNo writers every month since last year's challenge and I've taken it for granted that I will be doing it again this year. Except I have no idea what I am going to write. Nada. Zip. I first tried the NaNo challenge in 2004 but, because I only signed up to it on 1^st November, I had not planned anything in advance. I just made it up as I went along from Day One, got to about 25,000 words (the target being 50,000) and, having written myself into impenetrable knots, gave up. Last year I did some preparation: a premise, brief character notes, outlines of key scenes and a general synopsis. Sure much of what came out was made up on the spot but at least I had a basic framework to keep myself on the right track.

This year, though, I have no premise, no characters, no outline, nothing. All I do have is a desire to write the most sarcastic novel ever, to poke fun at mindless Creative Writing 101 dogma by explaining everything in terms of plot, symbols, metaphors, character arcs and motivation as I go along as if crediting the reader with zero intelligence. The only thing I haven't got is an actual story.

Come Wednesday, then, it looks as if I'll have to wing it from the very first sentence. Oh well. Wish me luck.