Of Adventure

The first Nano novel I wrote was entitled Towards Adventure, and was about a former farmer who taught himself to read, learned the stories of great men going on greater adventures, and wanted to do the same for himself. It started off simply enough, a lone man trying to make his way in the wilds, learning the lays of the land. He was a farmer, he'd know enough about food to get by. But as the story went on, I kept getting more ideas, and I didn't have a great sense of how to hold back at the time.

I added character after character, each with a purpose of teaching my hero something about adventure and life. How not to judge a book by it's cover. How to fight. How to expand his mind and body, and to do great things. These people would travel with him, to help him learn something about himself, and hopefully a little bit about themselves as well. But I added too many, and too quickly. Not to mention the format of the story - written as a journal by the main character - made it difficult to directly explore any of these side characters. Everything was limited by the eyes of the hero, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't working for what I wanted.

As I wrote, I began to realize how I wanted the story to end. Something that would change in the hero. Make him forget about the adventure that he had long ago set forward on. To separate him from his companions, from his ideals, and make him into a different man. But a man who continued to write about what was happening, because he felt a drive and a need to in himself.

The idea was that, in the beginning, every single day would be chronicled. At times, due to illness or injury, days would be missed, but glossed over with enough to detail to keep the reader up to date. But as time went on, and these changes began to take place, large gaps of the story would go missing. And not even just be skipped. I wanted the very pages of the book to be torn out, so as to show the reader that something was missing. I wanted them to feel as confused about what was happening as the characters were.

It would have made a good set up for the sequel I had in mind. For someone to find his journals much later, and to read them, and become curious. Curious enough to go on their own adventure, to find him. To find out what had happened. To see who he had become and what he had done, and to help him find his way back to adventure. And along the way, learn a little bit about themselves. To take the lessons that the old hero had written about, and apply them to his own life.

I still think it's a good idea. But I don't think I was anywhere close to where I needed to be with it the first time.