What's that on the horizon?! Yet another month of writing insanity, called National Novel Writing Month!

I 'won' last year, by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That story, my werewolf idea, has gone nowhere since, but that's probably because I've concentrated on the myriad of other stories that harass me at any given moment.

What to write this year? Well, I have a couple of choices. One is expanding on that dream that so captured my attention last month, tying together dreams, alternate universes, the concept of One True Companion for another, and Shakespeare. This might require me to become much more of a Shakespeare scholar in the long run, just for details or, since this is specualtive fiction, I can just make shit up. Probably the latter.

Tentatively titled Downtown Babylon, after a Paul Thorn song, my next choice is another non-supernatural, non-fantasy, non-weirdness story about normal people. Molly (have I picked a last name for her yet? It'll be an Irish name, to take full advantage of the Irish-owning-a-bar thing) owns a bar in a Navy town in Florida (might as well say Jacksonville or vicinity.) It sits across the street from a church. She and the members of the church have a policy of mostly ignoring one another. Her place is more of a family place and she tends to mother-hen her clientele in her own way, tossing them on their ear when they're too loud and obnoxious being part of the policy. Therefore her patrons tend to be pretty well-behaved. She is challenged by a young man who works at the church across the street, as to her lifestyle, which is not at all as decadent and sinful as he would like to believe. Typical for her, she pushes right back. Did I mention the on-again, off again musician boyfriend that comes around once in awhile just to shake things up? Or the homeless man she helps out? Or the dog?

Then there's A Single Self, an idea I've had for ages, about a person who is the result of a single birth, in a world where identical twins is the normal way of things. Probably mostly psychological.

And I could always write on New Tricks, the sequel to Old Dogs that I'm writing right now. There's plenty of material there and the characters won't shut up, but I may give Valerie and Daniel a rest for the time being, just so I can come back to them fresh and with new ideas.

So, what're you planning to write for NaNoWriMo 2009?

C'mon, spill.


*Crossposted to The Pen Whore*