Hi all
I don't have a lot of time for a full blog entry, but I thought I'd let everyone know that I'm attempting to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, as it's affectionately called. I don't know how successful I'll be this time out, since I'm already way behind where I should be, but the point for me is to kick start my writing, even if I don't succeed.
For those unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, November is considered National Novel Writing Month, and for most people that equates to a fun challenge of writing an entire novel throughout the month of November. 50,000 words is the minimum amount of words to be considered as a complete novel during this challenge, and there are many people who (somehow) manage to generate much more than that. Still others have gone on from that challenge to clean up those messy first-draft novels and publish them. Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus comes immediately to mind.
So why would anyone be crazy enough to write a novel in a month? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here are my top reasons for wanting to do it:
1. To give my writing a good kick in the pants.
2. To have some accountability. If I tell everyone I'm writing a novel, and this website tracks it, then everyone will know where I'm at with that. (And they can see that I'm currently VERY behind!)
3. To tell the internal editor to go on an extended vacation. There's nothing worse than the doubting, critical, "You'll never amount to anything" voice in your head trying to crush your dreams.You just don't have time for that person when you have such a tight deadline.
4. To simulate a tight deadline. Many people produce under tons of pressure, myself included.
And, most important of all...
5. To have some FUN!!!
Hopefully you get to experience this for one of those reasons above, or for your own personal ones. Now get out there and write that novel. There's still time to jump in!
