Saturday, October 31, 2009

Novel Writing Month

Do you know all about this? It begins tomorrow. It's National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo. Clever, right? (See? I'm like a novel-writing MACHINE. Or something.) I've never done it before, but I'm totally in for it this year. I have a plan (the hardest part for me) and a will (um, a close second) and a functional computer. That seems like all the tools I need to crank out a fifty-thousand-word draft in November.

I hope.

I am decidedly noncommittal for too many things, but I really want to try this out. Here's the thing: I need to start strong. Like Bust out of the gate sprinting, or something. But I don't generally write on Sundays. It's more like I spend several hours in church and then sleep it off. Plus some cooking.

So I may not actually begin until November 2nd. Which means, if I'm taking days off for Sunday-type activities, I need to throw down an average of 2500 words every writing day. (I did that math in my head. It could well be faulty.) That is roughly five times my daily writing goal. Okay, not roughly. It IS five times my daily goal. FIVE TIMES.

Want to know what will help? Husband will be in Hawaii for work (yeah, I know) for the first week. If I refrain from Netflixing (don't you love making up verbs?*) anything too tempting, I might actually make it. Possibly even more. Especially if I allow myself a really good reward when I hit the goal. Also, if I stop showering... No. Not that.

Stay tuned.

*We call that "verbing."

5 comments:

  1. Good luck! My November wish for you is that it be full of (that makes sense, right?) long, quiet, uninterrupted hours of writing time. And some delicious Hawaiian, chocolate-covered macadamias to boot.

    Send me drafts!

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  2. I just joined today. Let's be writing buddies or whatever they call them. My user name is Melanie_J. Which I know is a total shock.

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  3. Yay! Let's Nano together! I'm LT_Elliot (like Melanie said, big stretch) and lets blow this sucka out of the water. =]
    Verbing. Ha ha ha ha!

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  4. I did Nanowrimo two years ago and also did NaBloPoMo (where you blog every day for the whole month). It was insane and intense and we ate a lot of crummy meals that month but wow...what an amazing experience! It taught me that I can write a novel one (a crappy one, but hey, still a novel!).

    So wish I could join in this year. Good luck!

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  5. Good for you! I've never done it (and this won't be the year, either) but I think it sounds like a fantastic idea. I don't write on Sundays either, by the way...we are kindred spirits yet again. Good luck! I'm cheering for you!

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If you want to say it, I want to hear it. Bring it on.