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| Inky and me getting ready for NaNo 2.0 (AI) |
Last week while I was busy Not Blogging, I discovered that a couple friends are going to participate in the 50K-word writing challenge this November. As some of you may know, the original NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) site shut down at the end of 2025 for various reasons, and this year there are several options to use as a substitute (or just don't take the challenge, which was my choice for several years). I decided to go with NaNo 2.0 (@paula). This is a very bare bones site, so you're on your own ~ not much different from simply keeping track of your word counts yourself. I can't even figure out how to connect with my friends there, and it's possible there's no way to do that. They have some nice prep tools however, which I planned to work through diligently and then just wandered off on my own, as I do. (Note to self: do them!)
Now, I am going to say something that some of you might find horribly offensive. I am OK with using AI, not to write my story, but to help me with setting, character names, and jobs for my characters. Back when I wrote Ghosted, I spent hours researching Aruba, staring at photos online, and checking flight information. Now, I can ask Meta AI (or one of the other AI sources) and get that same info in a snap, freeing up more of my time for actual writing. I used to agonize over character names, while now I can ask AI for a list of popular US names for babies born around 1960 and 1990 ~ boom! Done. The same goes for surnames, which I often waste an unbelievable amount of time dithering over. Anyway, I think AI is especially helpful for the November 50K challenge, when the idea is to write our butts off, not waste time looking stuff up. Some people can write using (fill this in later) and (placeholder), but I am not one of them.
I saved a bunch of prompts from the past week, but then I decided, nah, I am gonna work on my NaNo outline instead. Sorry, prompters. This blogging lite mode will probably continue until December, unless I give up on the challenge, which has happened before. I may also write tedious, self-referential posts about my NaNo progress (or lack thereof) instead of my usual scintillating poetry or answers to questions. If anyone cares, my NaNo will be a romance novel or novella (shock), depending on if it's finished at 50K or needs more, but it will be a family friendly one since that's my jam now. No swearing, no sex, no smoking. Gah, so boring. There will be drinking though! Hurrah for margarita night! I mean, my characters will be drinking; I will not be, unless someone brings me a lovely cup of mulled wine with oranges and cinnamon. Mmm...
