NaNo NaNo

Once again, I am attempting NaNoWriMo.

This is an absolutely insane endeavor whereby one writes a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days.

Twenty-nine, if you take Thanksgiving Day off.

To win, you merely have to write 50,000 words not counting commas, and yes, technically you could just post "word word word word" 50,000 times and be done with it, but that defeats the purpose and is cheating. The purpose is to allow yourself the chance to develop a writing discipline.

It's where the butt meets the chair, so to speak.

I've tried before and failed. By all accounts, I'm still failing at this point, having only uploaded 4,617 words (the goal is 1,667 per day) because I spent the first 12 days procrastinating about it. It's funny. Eleven months out of the year I cannot WAIT for NaNo to begin, as I have novel outlines sitting there ready to go.

Then November 1st hits, and my inner editor wakes up from its slumber and whacks me over the head with an unconfidence stick, and my terrified little writer person shrinks away into the corner until I can coax her to come out. I must reassure her that the 50,000 words do not have to be good, it's just a rough draft, it's merely an exercise, and if there is anything worth keeping, we can spend the next 11 months editing.

So. If you don't hear from me for awhile, that's why. I'm propping up my little writer person, plying her with chocolate, and simultaneously trying to appease my inner knitter who is shrieking about how many days are left until That Other Big Winter Holiday coming up next month and how there is no way in Holland or Hillsdale that we're going to get two stinking sets of custom Barbie clothes knit for the grand nieces in time.

Have a great holiday season—in case I forget I have a blog until January.

Labels: nanowrimo

posted by Jeanne @ 9:34 PM