I have a great idea...

Hi there, friend. Welcome to my blog. Do you like it? ^_^ It has a very simplistic design, perfect for my purposes.

I'm starting up this brand new blog because of an idea I've had brewing in the back of my head for a few days. I was going to share my idea with everyone on Facebook, but I have a feeling my explanation would get a little too long, and I don't want to bore all of you. So I'm just going to post a link to this blog post on my wall, and let those who are curious enough decide to click over to here, if they want to know what my big idea is.

So, you've made it to my blog. You're probably wondering why I gathered you here today. (Mwah-ha-ha, I sound like a James Bond villain.)

I have a few reasons that all sort of magically came together to inspire this "big idea", and here they are.

First, Writing

Those who know me well know that I am an aspiring author. I used to blog very often up until a couple years ago. (You can see my other blogs in my profile, if you're really that curious.) I've written lots of poems and come up with many ideas for short stories and novels over the years, many of which I've started, but never got around to finishing (though I have at least a handful of stories I've completed that I can be proud of. ^_^) I'm also in a weekly writing group that meets at our local library every Saturday.
Often we do more talking than we do writing, but I still love going and hanging out with my writing friends.

Lately I've had an awful case of writer's block, so my writing dream has been put on the back burner for a long time. But if I tell people I'm a writer, then I should be writing, right? There's really no excuse NOT to write. There shouldn't be any reason I can't take a little time out of every day, like an hour or so, to write something. The problem is, I didn't know what to write about. Until very recently, that is...

Second, NaNoWriMo

If you're an aspiring author, you've probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, this is basically an annual contest with yourself (and thousands around the globe) to write a 50,000 word novel over the entire month of November. Not saying the novel has to be any good, it just has to have 50,000 words. Editing and polishing come in later. To reach this goal, one has to write an average of 1,667 words every day for 30 days straight. Sounds a little daunting, yes, but if you succeed it gives you great bragging rights in the end. ^_^

I've participated in NaNoWriMo a couple times, once in 2009 and once in 2011. Both times I was not successful and gave up in the middle. Probably because I didn't have a good idea for a novel that I could stick with. Well, it's another year (an odd year, by coincidence!), and this time I DO have a good idea, which I will now explain...

Third, Story War

About a month ago, in September, one of the birthday presents I happened to get was a card game called Story War. It's a little bit like Apples to Apples, except instead of convincing a judge to pick your word in favor of the other words, the object of the game is to use story-telling/debating skills to convince a judge that your character would beat all the other players' characters in a fight. There isn't any limit to your imagination. I've played this game a few times with my brother and sister, and we all love it.

A couple of times, I've actually brought Story War to my weekly writer's group. We came up with a variation of the game where, instead of battling each other, we take 2 character cards, an object card, and a setting card, and write about these things for a few minutes. It's really cool to see how people can take the exact same story elements and come out with completely different tales!

So, I love to write, and I really want to try my hand at NaNoWriMo again. But what can I write about? Well, the other day I got to thinking... What if I wrote a short story every day for 30 days with random Story War cards? It would be so much fun! Yes, it wouldn't exactly be a novel, so I might be cheating a little, but as long as I can come up with 50,000 words in a month, that's good enough for me. ^_^

Last, Sharing with friends

It really feels awesome having a game plan like this, a specific goal for me to attain. The only thing is, I don't just want to write these stories. I want people to read my stories. I want to get others' opinions, get their feedback, criticism and praise. I want an audience. I want to be held accountable for reaching my goal. And hey, I want to see if others would like to get in on the fun!

My first thought was to post my short stories on Facebook every day, so all my friends could see it. But like I said earlier, I don't want to bore or annoy anyone with my long status updates. 1,667 words makes for VERY long posts. (This very post isn't even that long. Pretty close, though.) So I thought it would be cool to keep my stories someplace I could easily share them with people, and so I decided I'd keep them all in a daily blog.

And now here we are! ^_^

Thank you for reading this far. I really appreciate your support. If you want to share your thoughts about this idea, let me know you were here, or just want to say hi, you can leave a comment down below. Or you can leave a comment/like on the Facebook post, whichever you prefer. Oh, and if you want to get regular updates, you can use your email address in the sidebar to the right to follow me. ^,^

Also, for those of you who aren't my friends on Facebook, I welcome you to this blog all the same. Hope you enjoy reading the stories I come out with.

It's only 10 days to NaNoWriMo. I'll try to post again in a few days, so stay tuned!

Hope to see you here in November! ^,~

Relevant links: 

NaNoWriMo Homepage ~ http://nanowrimo.org

Where you can buy Story War ~ http://www.cantripgames.com/storywar/