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  • National Novel Writing Month

    NaNoWriMo is the single best outside event to happen in my life. I won twice, 2005 and 2006; I've done almost no other writing recently; and yet, I know that I am a much better writer now than I was in October 2005. I just started roleplaying online again after a two-year hiatus (and by... more

    Reviewed by aksmith Dec 22 2006, 09:19pm ( 138 reviews ) • nanowrimo.org

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  • Rated by Thamus on Nov 11, 3:11am

    The month of the bleeding fingers IN case you haven't noticed, it's Novel Writing Month again. This bizarre exercise in self flagellation is now an established Internet event, a monumental celebration of online time-wasting. Last year, after criticising some of the inefficiencies on the site, I foolishly reacted to a jibe that it was easy for those who couldn't do it to mock those who could write a 50,000-word novel in a month. So I did it. I must be even more senile this year for reacting to a comment that of course, it's the sort of thing anyone can do once, but not twice in a row. Curses. And so it begins: Thought Train by Thamus THE wind is up today, a thin wind in the high plains, sending ochre dust down this red river valley. The sky is pink-tinged pearl with wispy cirrus overhead and darker piles of thick clouds to the north. If it rained, it would be the first time in eons. Somewhere beyond Earth, are telescopes seeing a brooding dust storm growling in the dark green canyons of Valles Marineris. That's 1,000 kilometers south of here but we're not worried. The scientists radio that unless it evolves into a global phenomenon, it won't bother us. It is cold, cold, but mid-afternoon's -16.67 Celsius is at least imaginable. A brief sniff we took of the thin air was dry metallic, rusty on the tongue. Let's get the science-so-far out of the way. Although we are now 200 million kilometers from Earth, we travelled 500 million kilometers to get here in a looping arc from Earth orbit to intercept Mars orbit, since we left quietly last December with barely a headline to mark the day. It was a boring seven months, and then everything happened in the last two minutes with the vessel 10 kilometers above the planet. The mission at that point consisted of a parachute dangling a tin hat with little rockets, and below that, a giant beach ball full of the good stuff. One minute 56 seconds later, the tin hat fired its retro-rockets for two seconds, then it and the parachute left the scene of the incident.The beach ball struck Ares Vallis at 33 kilometers per hour, bounced 18 meters high, bounced again eight meters, then bounce, bounce, roll, roll, rolled to a stop. The deflated airbags unfolded three lotus petals, and the lander shot up its camera-on-a-stick to peer around and look for the sun. It fixed on that, calculated where Earth was, and swivelled its antenna. ET called home: The beach ball has landed. So who's alien now? This world, or us? Us, I guess, but aaw, we're friendly aliens. If the rover wandering outside found a Martian lizard, it wouldn't kill it and send it back to earth for an autopsy. Of course not. Next time. By now, you're hopefully wondering about the we and us. Wondering, who wus is. Especially after those bits about hitting red rocks at 33 kph, the 18-meter bounces. You may have wondered even earlier about that sniffing the -16.67C mid-afternoon air. Did we really do that, sniff the chill after arriving with a bang in a beach ball full of landers and rovers and things? Goddam right we didn't. We came hissing comfortably into the valley on the only way to travel. Thought Train. Holy roller. We came on the Thought Train. [PICTURE: Thought Train cover design by me. Thamus 200901105]

  • Reviewed by Invaderlok on Nov 10, 3:14am

    Ughh, I knew I should have been working on this rather than stumbling, thanks I guess.

  • Rated by pandorasxbox on Nov 09, 12:21pm

    I actually want to try to do this sometime in the future, when November no longer coincides with term paper-writing marathons.

  • Reviewed by writeasongtoday on Nov 03, 9:32pm

    Diggin the challenge of NaNoWriMo. I was reminded of it earlier today, and at first thought, that'd be nice to do-- maybe, next year. The day's done and I'm telling myself I'm doing it. Thanks a lot! no really, thanks.

  • Rated by jimmacmillan on Nov 02, 5:40pm

    Just remembered #nanowrimo but there is no way I can try this year: [link]

  • Rated by allaboutsoul on Oct 28, 8:10pm

    I need to actually do this this year, even if what I write sucks.

  • Reviewed by ktymellow on Oct 15, 9:44pm

    lol

  • Rated by Distinctions on Sep 30, 9:31pm

    Love this! Managed to win last year, can't wait to do it again :) Hurry up November!

  • Rated by harry4ever on Sep 16, 5:29am

    doin it this year!

  • Rated by slytherinpriide on Sep 11, 2:20am

    The month to start writing is creeping up fast! I'm excited. I convinced my mom to try too :D