Quote:
Originally Posted by badgerboy
I feel like I want to do this, but then I wonder and fear that the result will be some spectacularly bad bastardised hybrid of my favourite books.
Do you find your writing to be original, whatever that means, or is it a hybrid that you end up hoping no-one will recognise as a rewrite of other novels?
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Write what you enjoy to write, and part of learning to write is working out the 'like such-and such" writing and turning it into your own. There is nothing wrong with getting influence from other series though. I've heard that Shades of Grey was actually a NaNo project as a parody of the Twilight series (neither of which I've read or want to read) and Shades of Grey has gained just as much popularity.
My nano project this year actually started off being highly influenced by Dragon Ball Z and over the time I've plotted out and grown the story, characters and story world I've weeded out a lot of the DBZ-ness and I see it as something that holds itself as unique. Will people catch that it has some similarities to DBZ? Perhaps. Did I outright copy DBZ? Nope. It's just influenced by it.
You can't get mad at every fantasy novel for having a band of heroes that include an elf and wizard that set out to save the world a direct copy of Lord of the Rings, but you may see where the story was influenced by it. (If it has hobbits though, I'd start getting worried. :P )
So if you want to do NaNo I say go for it. Nobody is expecting you to publish your work either, and many first drafts are a mess anyway. That's where editing and rewriting come in to help fix your story.
I'm sure you could do fan-fiction as well, if you're not into publishing. Many people enjoy writing fan-fiction.
The point to NaNo, is to just write, and have fun, and loose sleep over trying to make that 50,000 word goal :P (I don't advise the loosing sleep part though.)