Nanowrimo starts today and I'm excited. I'll be able to participate because I can write in pocket Word on my LG Phenom. Thank god for my baby laptop.

I think this year I will outline the story first before I start writing. From screenwriting, I learned how important it is to have a well thought out plot and an outline, just so you don't get lost while writing. I'm not sure if I'll stick to a straight three act structure however, because in a novel I think there is a little more freedom to be looser with your plot. You don't have to be so linear, and you can have flashbacks, have way more background and backstory, etc.

I'll review Aristotle's Poetics to refresh my memory about plot structure. In a movie, they say you should "start late and leave early", meaning I think, begin on the cusp of conflict and end your movie leaving your audience with a sense that there's future, just in case you want to do sequels. Or something like that.

This will be my first stab at fantasy type literature. I think it makes sense that I would eventually gravitate towards this kind of writing. I love science fiction (love Red Dwarf), and I love stories and movies about magic, witches, and other world type phenomena. I'm an avid listener to the Art Bell program, and I totally love conspiracy, one world government theories. My favorite show on TV was Witchblade, and the other two shows that I really liked, Alias and La Femme Nikita, had fantastic elements in them. I even got hooked on The Charmed Ones for awhile, although I stopped watching when Shannon Doherty left the show.

It will be interesting to see how easy or difficult it will be to write a fantasy story. I'm going to have to create a whole new different world, with its own rules, its own creatures, etc. I want to start to play with my brand of elf lore and mythology, and have my main protagonist be a half elf and half human. If elves have 12-strand dna and human have 2-strand dna, then would a half elf and half human would have 4-strand dna?. It's issues like this I'm going to have to start thinking seriously about to make my story credible.

But I think it will be so interesting and fun to try and do this. It will be a challenge to my imagination and my logical mind, and I'm so looking forward to mental stimulation and exercise.