A Death in November

So. Back in 2005, when National Novel Writing Month rolled around in November, I wrote Fred Again, a novel about a police detective and a young woman facing Lovecraftian forces beyond their control, and winning. Sort of. There was a lot going on in that novel.

The title Fred Again didn’t come from me, though. It came from my friend Nicole. You see, I announced in October that I had no idea what I was going to write, so I simply solicited titles from my friends on the Internet, and decided that with that title, I’d simply sit down at midnight on November 1 to see what came out. As a reward for suggesting a winning title, I said, I’d kill the friend off in the manner of their choosing in the novel. I got so many great title ideas that I decided to use them as chapter titles, meaning that each chapter featured a gruesome death scene featuring my friends. It was a blast to write, and, by all accounts, a blast to read. And the really neat thing is that Fred Again sort of set me on a new path in my writing. Up until then I’d been writing straight horror or science fiction, and not enjoying it too much. With Fred Again I made the switch to comic horror, and my writing has been a lot more fun since then.

It’s been ten years since then, and once again I have no idea what I’m going to write for National Novel Writing Month. Actually, that’s not entirely true; I had an idea, but it requires planning and outlining and what not, which, at this point, I just don’t have time for. So I’m going to do what I did in 2005: sit down at midnight on November 1 and start writing and see what happens.

Of course I have no idea what the title of the novel will be, nor what the chapter titles might be, so once again I’m soliciting ideas.

So: Got a novel/chapter title suggestion for me? Post it in the comments on this blog post, reply to me on Twitter, or post a comment in Facebook. As a thank you, I will happily write you into my novel and kill you off in the manner of your choosing.

Suggest away!

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