Good Idea vs Bad Idea

If only decisions were as simple as they appeared in cartoons. Alas, life is not so black and white. Case in point, my current problem: what project to focus on next?

I've narrowed it down to 17. Yes, I said "narrowed down to," from a pool of God knows how many ideas. Some were cut because I just didn't feel that spark of interest that I had when I originally jotted it down. Some were thrown out due to lack of substance for a full length novel. Still others were rejected because they were sequels to previously written works or were in a genre too close to a recent work.

So after all that searching through old notes and refreshing of my memory (did I really write that? really?) I've come up with a list of 17 potential projects. For what you ask?

National Novel Writing Month! This November, as in Novembers past, authors all over the world will embark of a 30-day marathon of words, quips, beats and turns-of-phrase. The objective? Write a 50,000 word novel by midnight on November 30th, 2010! The prize? Your very own 50,000 word novel!

For those of you who prefer figures over phrases, that's:
1,667 words a day
70 words an hour
or a little over 1 word a minute

Seems reasonable. Though 1,667 words is about 6-7 pages. (Remember when a 10 page term paper seemed like a nightmare?) So that's 6-7 pages a day, every day. Factor in workdays, sick days, holidays (oh hi Thanksgiving!) and that number probably gets bumped up pretty quick. It's no wonder that about half of the people who start this marathon don't quite finish in time.

But that's not really the point. The point is to try, to write your tail off and see what you get. The point is to suffer through the ordeal with other writers all over the world. The point is DEFINITELY NOT to submit your freshly finished NaNoWriMo novel to an agent or publisher until after St. Patrick's Day 2011! Don't even think about it!

Anyway, back to the decision. This is where you, my favorite people, get to play a part! Like I said, I have 17 projects, spanning various genres. I'll be working on a logline (basically a TV Guide style blurb about the book) for each project, which I will post here in a poll. You guys can feel free to vote and leave comments on which sounds the most interesting to you and I'll take your opinions into consideration on the final decision!

Check back within the next few weeks to vote in the poll. And let me know if you've got your own NaNoWriMo project in the works!

~VK