Happy New Year!
I actually love New Years a bit more than Christmas celebrations. I don’t like the whole drinking aspect, but the chance to start over, to begin again, is just too tempting, isn’t it?
The one thing I don’t have very much luck with is New Years Resolutions. I can never stick to them, but I know that I’m not the only person with this problem. There’s just something about New Years Resolutions that makes them almost impossible to stick to.
Which might make this literary experiment a little futile, but we shall see.
For 2011, I thought I would try something different. I thought I would write a novel in one year, one chapter a day for 365 days.
Why would I do such a thing? Well, there are a variety of reasons; one is that I need to remember to have more discipline in my craft. I’ve tried writing only when the urge takes me, but then go months with not writing. For 2011, I wanted to write something every day, or try to at least.
The problem is, I get bored really easily. I am primarily a writer of short stories and novellas. I get bored with long form novels or even longer novellas. I’ve always written this way and I guess it comes down to the fewer words, the more powerful the story.
So then I was stuck with an idea. How do I write something over a 365 Day time period? Do I make it a series of short stories, or do I try to make it all one interconnected, serial tale? I decided to go with the latter as it would be more fun to start storylines and pick them up later.
I wanted to write a serial story that would have no definitive plot, no time line, no developed theme. I wanted to try writing something organic and something that would be a little different. Instead of a narrative novel, I wanted to write a series of revolving narratives. This way, I could take a look at many characters lives around the same moment of time.
The intent is to write about 365 different people that are all somehow connected. I don’t know if I will actually be able to write about 365 different characters; I think the project is a lunatic idea enough as it is. I may eventually go back to other characters that I’ve given a bit of the lime light to. But we’ll see.
Originally, I had sent out the first three shorts as e cards to a small group of friends and family. But quite a few of them told me that I should be posting these on a blog so that everyone could read them. I agree. Why the heck not, right? If you like ‘em, hopefully I’ll keep writing.
Now, a word on the stories and the characters names. To keep the project fun, and to keep a note of whimsy to the whole thing, I have decided to give all the characters within the story the most bizarre, odd or ridiculous names possible, within reason.
You see, that was the genesis for the first story.
I was watching South Park on television (it’s one of my favourite shows) and the character Wendy Chesteburger (sp?) was speaking. I thought about the most ridiculous name I could think of for a girl and came up with Hasenpfeffer Finklestein.
Then, I thought, what would a girl with that kind of name sound like? What would she speak like?
The story just poured out. And then I thought, why not see what else I can do?
And so here we are. I hope that you’ll join me on this surely crazy and insane literary experiment where I try to write a 365 Day Online Serial Novel. The first chapter is up now and you can read it at this link:
http://www.ayearofyou.blogspot.com/
I hope you’ll join me…
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