SoCNoc 2009

Um ... okay. So I wasn't gonig to do it. But I will.

The SOuthern Cross Novel Challenge (SoCNoC) is the southern hemisphere's version of NaNoWriMo, scheduled to fall in our winter, as there are no warm summery distractions to pull us away from our keyboards. 50,000 words in the month of June.

I have done SoCNoC before. Just like NaNo, it is a useful learning experience, but one I felt I had out grown. Hell, I'm 35,000 into Traces, 19,000 into Scratches, and making steady progress. I don't need a kickstart or an artificial deadline to motivate me. I'm doin' it, man, already.

But I'm also wearied of Traces and a bit stuck on Scratches. And I've had this really cool idea in the back of my mind for a couple of months. I've even got a title for it. And - important bit - it's not a murder-mystery. It's Alternate Present/Near Furture fiction aimed at teenagers. So completely different from what I usually write.

So I decided it would make perfect material for SOcNoC. I'd be aiming for 80,000 words, so a savage burst of writing in June would see me near almost finished. So I roughed out a plan - it is a fairly schematic story - based on seven major phases, each containing seven minor phases. At 12,000 words for each major phase, that would get me to 84,000 words. And each minor phase would be about 1,700 words - a sniff over the daily minimum to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Planning is something alien to me, but it seemed appropriate fro this story. It is strange to think that - in theory at any rate - I can identify where in the stroy the 50,000th word will fall - in Phases 5/1, provisionally titled 'The Tough Guys,' where the group of major characters find themselves trapped in a small town menaced by a motorcyle gang.

That said, Phases 1/1 - 'Bread' - took me 2,000 words, with space for more if needed. But having too many words is not a problem.