Like last year, I find myself not posting very much as the month progresses. Which means come November, I will be concentrating on what I'm doing rather than reading the Nano forums. Which is a good thing, I suppose. I'm a procrastinator but my need to not be influenced by other people's ideas usually overpowers that.
There are also topics on the forums that I automatically skip over. People can post whatever they wish, of course, but I have little interest in reading questions where people ask for help (because I have no qualifications in the area) or where people ask for ideas. As someone who writes, I sometimes get bombarded by people who tell me it'll be great if I wrote about such-and-such idea. I already have my ideas, thank you very much, and don't have any extra ones. People with too many ideas should tell them to someone else.
Here's an interesting quote from the boards:
The only thing we were trying to say is that this year NaNo seems to have more suicide/SI [self-injuring] stories than the past ones. Last year it was all about the Lord of The Rings and the Diary of Bridget Jones rip-offs. I wish you could see the forums to get an actual feel of how much was talked about those two topics. This year, suicide/SI seems to be the big thing, and some people think that it is because it has become rather fashionable to be angsty.
Heh. If people want to write what is fashionable, then they can do it. Writers can do whatever they want, even if what they're doing is not very good. I guess I'm barely ahead of the crowd--the main character in my 2003 novel had a tendency for slashing her wrists. As for this year (not to mention subsequent years) I do not want to do what everyone else is doing. Oh sure, I'm dying to tell someone about the plot that I have, but right now, I'm keeping that under wraps even if it drives me to drink.
