Saturday, April 28, 2007

Vansinnesprojekt!

Okej, om några veckor ska det första utkastet till debutromanen vara klart. Det är tänkt att hela projektet ska gå att följa här på bloggen. Jag lägger därför upp en kopia på det bindande kontrakt jag skrivit under.

I, hereby pledge my intent to write a 50, 000-word novel in one month's time.

By invoking an absurd monthlong deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of craft, brilliance, and competency are to be chucked right out the window, where they will remain, ignored, until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self-doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realise I will produce clunky dialogue, clichéd characters and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected or excised at a later point. I understand my right to whithold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it complete. I also acknowledge my right as author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process, should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect, attention or freedom from household chores.

I acknowledge that the monthlong, 50, 000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the deadline once the adventure has begun, will result in well-deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration and intensity of which may prelude me from participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterwards.

Novel Start Date
24/04/07

Novel Deadline
23/05/07

3 comments:

Unknown said...

GO MAN!

Ute said...

hi Tom,

I just looked for the original text of Chris Baty's NaNoWriMo agreement on the net, and while the remainants of your text unfortunately stay foreign to me (it's all Swedish to me), the part between 'intent to write' and 'novel deadline' was very clear.

Two thumbs up!
I started yesterday - so will always be hunting a few thousand words behind ;-).
In hope that your fingers race across the keyboard, cover much ground, don't get bogged down by the swamps of novel-world, and make it healthily across the finish line.

Best,
Ute

Pingvinkvinnan said...

GRATTIS PÅ FÖDELSEDAGEN TOM! Jag hoppas du har haft en fin dag och fått en och annan överraskning. Kram på dig! /Rebecka