Trying to get it write

I am attempting to write a book.

This is not something new for me - friends of mine from high school may remember my attempts at book writing back in those days; friends from uni (particularly those that did the creative writing course with me) will surely remember my NaNoWriMo attempt, and those closer to me may remember the other numerous attempts that have come in between. Readers of this blog my recall a certain promise to get a script going involving a modern day Northanger Abbey. But I refer to them all as attempts. None of them have progressed any further than a couple of thousand words (30 000 in the case of my WriMo attempt of 2009) and the ideas behind them still intrigue me and are still lodged somewhere in my brain, waiting to be rekindled, they have all essentially fallen by the wayside. Once this happens, it is incredibly difficult to pick them back up again. I lose my train of thought, that particular style of writing that was being used, and no matter how hard I try to get it started again, I just cannot get back into that novel's particular rhythm.

This time is different. This time I am trying really hard not to let my novel fall by the wayside. I have great plans and I am not going to let myself and my silly little brain get in the way of letting me succeed. This time it is personal.

So what is my next great attempt about? I am hoping to write up a detailed account of my year in Korea. I don't know how many of the people reading my blog received my fortnightly updates, but many of the people who did read them insisted that I should attempt to write a novel. They said that they all thoroughly enjoyed the short(ish) accounts that I provided them with, and thought that my adventures would make a brilliant book. And so I am trying to put it together piece by piece, trying to figure out what should stay in and what should stay out; who I should mention and who I shouldn't.

Of course, there are aspects to this that remain very difficult. Pieces of information were intentionally left out of letters for example (my parents and grandparents don't need to know about my semi-drunken escapades), and I am sure that some of my friends would not appreciate their own personal lives being put on display. Does that mean that I shouldn't include that information in the book? Does it mean that I should change names to protect anonymity? Should I do all of this now, during the writing stages, or should I finish writing and remove the dodgy bits later during the editing stages? Ah, life's great questions.

Regardless of these questions that keep pestering my mind, I am moving forth. I am not very far into the writing of the book yet, and still have to figure out how I am going to lay everything out, But I am writing, and that is the important part. As long as I keep doing that, I am sure that this one will pan out. Hold thumbs for me.

Oh, and the question for today: Would you object to being referred to in someone else's novel?