Do you know it? A friend of mine told me of it a few years ago and I've decided that this year I will definitely do my best to participate. This will be hard work as I've got several other things I'm working on at the moment.... But keeping busy is better than staying idle, that's the truth of it.
If you don't know what it is you can visit the website here. Basically you spend the entire month of November to push out whatever piece of writing you've been putting off forever. You literally push it out like the child you never wanted.
Not too difficult, there are only the few rules below (copied from the site) that you must adhere to:
Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people’s works).
Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you’re writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.
With only two weeks to plan I have no ideas as to what I want to write. I've had ideas for short stories and fairy tales before but none of which have come to fruition. They say on the site that it's ok not to know what you're doing as you begin this quest. That's good because my "novel" is going to sound like a bunch of brainstormed gibberish for the first 160 pages I'm sure. Followed by three amazingly coherent pages and then the last twelve pages reading like a rogue keyboard having a seizure of sorts.
They say you're allowed to brainstorm an outline and develop characters so I guess that's what I'll have to do.... what a crazy idea... just a month of massive free-writing with hundreds of thousands of minds coming together to write and write and write some more. I gotta say. I like it.
I like making lists. (I know I know... everyone likes making lists.) But I mean it in the literal sense. I like writing lists. It's never just good enough to print out a list and then cross things off, if I see a list I want to make a sheet of paper with properly spaced rows and columns and write them in by hand.
Today my list is of the Top 100 Canadian Films as picked by the Possible Worlds Film Festival people. They've got the list online, but I've now got my OWN list. the same list in the same order and even with LESS information than the fancy reviews and summaries that are on the site. But it's mine and it's in my hand and for some reason the list is more real because I can touch it. Like the 100 films that have been put down onto three sheets of paper are now a unit and it belongs to yours truly. I've just now finished it.
see?
Yeah but what about those other lists that I've put on my blog? You better believe that I've got that shit on paper, stored away, and preserved in its greatness.... Even the list of Empire's 500 movies. Written out. By hand.... That one actually hurt my wrist....
During my busy yet incredibly lazy weekend I had the pleasure of watching a really fantastic movie featured by the Ellensburg Film Festival. While it was a little bit of a drive to get to the show it was definitely worth it.
The film that I chose to see was "Starbuck" (2011) directed by Ken Scott starring Patrick Huard. I walked in about 2 minutes late (see drive time above) and let me tell you. I had a flash of "oh shit is this the wrong movie??" because I had no idea it was all going to be in French!! Good thing I'm learning French so I was able to understand.... NONE of it. But it makes sense. This movie had to be in French. Because it's from Quebec. And the French was 20% of why it was so good- not because French is awesome, but because this movie would not have had the same rhythm and vibe if it were in another language. Before I went to the festival, I read a super short description of a man who donates a ton of sperm and now his kids want to know who he is. I can honestly say I had no idea what it was that made me decide I want to go see this but I liked the name and I thought it'd be cute. Obviously my movie choosing method is really in depth and thorough...
look at this face. look at that name. how could you not?
You can read all about the details on the Wikipedia page (click on the link above) but whatever you read, this movie has very little to do with a man who has fathered 533 children as a sperm donor and more to do with a very human way of dealing with things that seemed like a good idea at the time... or maybe not even a "good" idea, just- an idea.
"Starbuck" gives the viewers a glimpse of what it means to be connected in the most random ways and what it makes a family. Sounds corny, huh. But how many movies have you seen where "family" refers to 533 people who were created by a man who wanked himself into a cup? And even better, 142 of those people find each other and form a family bonded by one question- who is our father; who is Starbuck? David thoughtlessly says to one of his foundling sons "I have a real family you know" and the son's curt retort is "and what are we then?" This man who doesn't have the maturity to keep his own life in order is also the father that 142 people seek to meet and understand. He has been part of their family the whole lives of the children as the person who gave them life but none of these offspring were anything to David beyond the $35 dollars received and spent. Does that make them less than family? How does that work? With the one connecting factor as Starbuck, 142 people who were strangers living completely separate lives and all of those intimately involved in David's "real" life come together and form a ginormous family. It was beautiful. It made me think "how far really, is the degree of separation between us all as strangers and loved ones?" One random common factor can take anybody in the world from being an unknown existence in our lives to someone we someday cherish closest to our hearts. And as weighty as that sounds, this movie was hilarious. For these two reasons "Starbuck" gets a 10.
Plus, the cast was brilliant. And real. Maybe I'm just not used to Canadian cinema but I was surprised at how well the wit was integrated into the plot. None of those random one-liners that make you think "wow the writer must have heard this somewhere and was dying to make this work somewhere in the script." Patrick Huard was great. I wish he spoke English so my love for him could have even one less degree of separation (but no worries there Huard, I am learning the French!!) Antoine Bertrand does the token best friend beautifully with a purpose in the film as something other than "lead's best friend with quirky pips."
you've stumbled into my head have you? Well good luck finding anything worth keeping!! But if you do find something.. may it bring a smile to your face, or a thought to your brain~
