Next month = Na(Gra)NoWriMo

Okay, so I am one of those poor nerds/suckers who will be participating in National Novel Writing Month but I’ll be doing it a little differently. Inspired by Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog, instead of writing a 175-page novel, I will be writing the script for a 175-page graphic novel. This doesn’t exactly follow the rules of NaNoWriMo, but I’ve accepted my ineligibility for the No-Prize of winning the real NaNoWriMo.

There are several reasons why I’ve decided to tweak NaNoWriMo this year. First, I’ve been kicking around this idea for a story for over a year (maybe two) but I’ve never actually written it down. Since I believe that this story would only work properly in graphic novel form (especially since I can’t afford to film a blockbuster scifi/action epic on my paycheck) I knew I’d eventually have to write a script for it. And since NaNoWriMo is all about finally getting that novel written, I thought it only make sense to use the month to motivate me to finally get my shit together and something on paper.

Also, I’m not in the place, creatively to write long prose. It’s really shameful, but I really do not read much prose anymore. I’ve mostly only been reading comic books lately. Now, I’m not going to make a broad generalization about how prose is somehow superior to comics, but when you’ve been reading more Ms. Marvel than Kafka, tackling a 50,000 word prose novel is not a good idea. You’ve got to write what you know, and right now I know comics.

And writing a comic script, I think, will just be easier. Of course, I may actually end up writing close to 50,000 words by the end of the month (but most likely I won’t come close) but it just seems so much easier to structure a page of panels than it is to structure a page of paragraphs, especially since most of the writing in NaNoWriMo ends up being improvisational. I tried to write a novel last year and failed miserably because of the demand of one-the-spot prose writing at high quantities. I may be cheating and doing something apparently easier, but at least I’ll get something done.

I’ll be sure to post some on my progress next month. Wish me luck!

Update: Dave has set up a blog especially for NaGraNoWriMo. Any comic bloggers up to the challenge should check it out.