A Question for Aaron: National Novel Writing Month

For obivously maniacal reasons, I've been encouraged by friends, lovers and family to participate in the National Novel Writing Month, and for even worse reasons, I've actually agreed to register for the event. At first, I was completely ignorant of the project. It's an attempt by all those who register to produce a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Last year, 45,000 people registered and about 6,000 people staggered to the finish line with their completed opus. The idea is to produce quantity and let quality be damned; well, I suppose it doesn't have to be that bad.

I discounted the entire enterprise at first for several reasons. First of all, it occurred to me that such rapid scribbling might produce a lot of copy, but at the same time it might promote bad habits and sloppy writing. My second, and more important, reason is that I've been working hard on a 'real' novel and didn't want to interrupt my progress to engage in, at least what I considered, a far less serious endeavor.

In spite of my reservations, I've agree to contribute to this project; it's coming at the wrong time for me personally, but it could be fun and might even result in something of value.

Now to my question. Several years ago, a few of us began an interactive Tex story on the old message board. Each person participating would post a new installment, thus moving the story forward. It proved difficult to keep things consistent and various plot conflicts eventually condemned the effort, and it was discontinued. I've always been disappointed that some of the ideas I thought interesting weren't further pursued. Consequently, I've decided to pick up the theme once more and try to guide part of the proposed outline to conclusion. I've searched in vain within the archives for the old installments, but I can probably reconstruct enough of them from memory to recast an old story in a new form and provide an appropriate ending. Actually, a new beginning and plot would be necessary given the divergent directions into which the original storyhad wandered.

Although it's improbable that any of this material would see commercial publication, I thought that use of actual characters and locations from the Tex series might involve copyright infringement. Am I correct in this assumption? As an alternative, I'm considering developing a new protagonist, another private detective, I'm afraid, but someone more noirish than the Tex we all know and love. The story would be set in post-nuclear San Francisco, in the mutant section of the city, but names of characters and streets would all be changed. Would this be satisfactory? Of course, I would include a statement that the story and characters were inspired by the Tex Murphy series.

I'm sure you're very busy, but if you can manage a reply, I would appreciate any consideration or advice you could render.

Dragon