"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps"

Good old William Shakespeare once wrote that in a play called "Much Ado About Nothing." The play, which could almost be called a Shakespearean version of a sitcom, isn't quite about nothing. Without giving too much away, basically there's a young couple who fall in love and another couple who are most definitely in love though they deny it thoroughly and are always at each other's throats. The young man gets some intentionally misleading information about the girl he's just fallen in love with, and he publicly slanders her and ruins her reputation on the day of their wedding. You should really read the play, but if you're not that into Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh did an excellent job of adapting this into a movie. (I also read that Joss Whedon has a version that just came out.)

Why am I telling you about this? Because, folks, I've decided to rewrite this play for my NaNoWriMo project this year. I first fell in love with this play when I was a lot younger and I watched the movie with my parents. Though I didn't quite understand all of it (the lines are exactly as old Billy wrote them), I still couldn't help loving the characters and their plights. I've seen the movie quite a few times and read the play a couple times, and I am really excited to try to write a new version of it.

Yes, I know some of you may be groaning on the inside because you're sick of seeing old classics retold over and over. But - and excuse me for being a little hipster - this isn't Pride and Prejudice or Romeo and Juliet, it's not quite as well known and certainly not as retold. And maybe some of you are thinking that I'm cheating by using someone else's story. But I can guarantee it'll be just as hard to modernize this story as it would be to write an entirely new one. Plus, I don't think Billy will mind.

So there you have it. That is the entirety of what I'll be working on this November. Also, for those of you who would actually like to read the story while I'm writing it, Smashwords has graciously allowed us writers to use their services to show people our progress. So after I've been onto the site, I'll be posting a link to it so you can read along. I have to warn you now - when I write a rough draft, I really do mean that it's rough. So don't judge me, but I will take some constructive criticism along the way. Especially if you happen to notice I'm missing any words!

- Natasja