Doubling the stakes

So I've done NaNoWriMo — and won NaNoWriMo — five times running. That's cool. I've had different challenges all the way through. But my problem is that I don't really have a challenge this year. In fact, this year will be easier, since for the first time in three years — after exams — I won't be studying at the same time.

Actually, when you look at 2007, it was frickin' insane. I was working full-time; studying full-time; had exams; only had 17 days; was writing in a new genre; and moved house. I think the only way it could've got harder would've been if Dan and I had broken up, got married or had a baby.

I started idly thinking today what new challenges I could set myself. The answer's pretty evident: word limit. I wrote 50,000 words in 17 days last year. That's a lot of words in not a lot of time. What if I upped the challenge?

I don't know if I could do it; I don't know how many words my storyline would even last for. But I think my storyline is pretty fluid; and I hope I'll be adding lots of new scenes and characters and sub-plots along the way.

And out of my five different NaNoWriMo novels, only one — last year's, which had abysmally little plot — was actually finished in 50,000 words (actually, 50,087). The others are still, embarrassingly, waiting for me to go back and finish them. But maybe that shows I can write more than a 50,000-word story.

A 70,000-word novella? Maybe.

A 100,000-word novel? Probably not. But that first year, I didn't think I could do a 50,000-word one either. And isn't not knowing you can do something, part of the challenge of doing it?

I haven't decided on anything yet. I'm just thinking.