Every November for the past ten years, thousands of complete lunatics -- er, I mean writers -- have congregated online to write a novel in a month. According to the NaNoWriMo website, 119,301 writers signed up for the challenge this year, and 21,683 met the 50,000-word quota -- that's the highest "win" rate of any NaNoWriMo yet!
A hefty handful of this year's NaNoWriMo winners came from WEbook -- read all about them here. This WEek's WEbooker, HorrorPunk, is one of those brave writers.
Last week in this blog, HorrorPunk told WEbook's TsungChi about his book Agoraphobia, in which "a recovered agoraphobic tries to grow closer to his ex-therapist-cum-girlfriend by sharing her love of nature." You can read Agoraphobia on WEbook, here. To get the story behind the story, I asked HorrorPunk a few probing questions.
Q: What is the (brief) story of your life?
A: I'm a single father going to school, and I have always had a passion for the written word. I'm currently studying to be an RN.
Q: Where and when did you get the idea for Agoraphobia?
A: My novel was outlined on the back of an overdue bill, days before the challenge began. Luckily, it remained pretty much untouched through the whole manic process.
Q: What was the hardest thing about the NaNoWriMo challenge? What was the biggest lesson?
A: Most definitely the hardest thing to learn from the NaNo was to stop editing. You just have to plow ahead, and ignore how bad you think your unedited work is.
Q: What's next? Do you intend to keep working on this project, or are you on to something new?
A: Despite finishing 50,000, the novel is not quite done yet. I need about another 11 chapters. Then it's off to edits-ville for a few months -- oh, joy!
Q: How do you balance being a single dad with writing and your career as a student?
A: Being a student helps, because I don't have a 9-5 job that keeps me away from home a lot. That way I have more leeway than most in jumping between roles of writer and dad.
Q: If you could offer your son one life lesson, using only six words, what would it be?
A: Don't do what I did, boy.
Do you have a line on the wonderfullest writer on WEbook? The fantastickest feedbacker? Or anyone else who goes above and beyond to make WEbook the best writing, reading, and publishing community on the internet? Drop me an email, or visit my profile and send me a message with the title "WEbooker of the WEek" to nominate your favorite WEbooker and he or she will have a shot at joining the ranks of the immortals -- and getting a free WEbook T-shirt to boot.
Sign up for WEbook today and start reading, writing, and feedbacking.
-- Melissa
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