November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a challenge to write 50,000 words in the month. You can sign up at the NaNoWriMo website for writing tips, encouragement, etc. and at the end of the month you can submit your writing for an official word count and if you’ve met the 50,000 requirement, you’re a winner! I first learned about NaNoWriMo from Greg and I have a few other friends who are into it. I signed up for the first time this year. And that was maybe a pipe dream; we’ll see. With all my work for grad class plus other sundry obligations, I’m way behind in my writing for the month. I think I’m relying on having a few days where I just do a writing marathon. Too bad blog posts and seminar papers don’t count.
My quest to write for this is further complicated by the fact that I’ve been oscillating between two different stories. And I might switch to a third. I still haven’t been able to make up my mind on one to focus on. But that’s the goal of NaNoWriMo, to have the first draft of a novel, not partial drafts of several. That’s always been a problem of mine with writing, too many ideas and not enough follow through on them. I think that’s why I’ve done so well with the blog, because I can write on my idea in one or two pages. With novels, there’s a lot of fleshing out that needs to be done and I get bored with the details sometimes, the transitions between one major event and the next.
But part of that problem is my penchant for editing while I write instead of just writing and then editing later. I have a really hard time writing crap. But you have to if you’re going to get a first draft of a novel done. You can’t become paralyzed by your editing and censorship. But I frequently do. ‘Would this character really say that? That’s not the word I mean, what’s that word I’m thinking of? Nope, there’s no comma there.’ That stuff slows me down and I usually end up stalled out. So, I’m hoping that NaNoWriMo will push me to just sit down and write. Just put down the first thing that comes to mind and let go of correcting it until later when I have a whole draft to work with.
At any rate, I figured it was better to go for NaNoWriMo than Movember, mustache growing month.
Next up: the obligatory Thanksgiving post.