National Novel Writing Month

This November I am going to participate in National Novel Writing Month.  NaNoWriMo entails pledging to write a full 50,000 word manuscript in one month, from 11/1-11/30.   Does that sound crazy? YES YES YES.

It’s 1,666⅔ words a day.  And that doesn’t even include days when you’re too busy to write (most days I work and holidays when I’m with family).  But that’s the point.  NaNoWritMo encourages writers to find time to write, no matter what.  They have a quite humorous ‘advice column’: “Suggest to your housemates that if they take care of chores during November, you'll cover the following two months. Make sure you're not signed up for soccer game snack-duty, volunteering in the neighborhood—any helpful or productive task that isn't writing your novel—until November is past.”

They also suggest you just write, not edit.  How could you find time to write 50,000 words and then edit them to 50,000 quality words? The point is quantity, over quality.  After all, they tell you December is for editing.  Luckily for me, this part of the deal won’t be difficult to adjust to.  Normally I do write first, edit later.  But the sheer quantity before editing?  I normally do a couple chapters at a time, not the whole manuscript. We shall see.

The whole concept of NaNoWriMo is ridiculous.  I’ve heard of it before and have always scoffed.  Yet…why not participate in an event that will encourage me to write as much as humanly possible?  I’m at the perfect writing point to participate: I just gave The Rose of Coracus away for reader’s critiques, so I need to let it go for the time being.  No need to nitpick before receiving feedback.  So, in order to take my mind away from that manuscript and move on, I need to start another one.  What better way to begin a manuscript than by working on it as much as possible this month?

Will I reach 50,000 words?  I’m not sure.  I don’t think it really matters if I do.  What matters is that this upcoming month I’m going to be writing, writing, writing and hopefully getting one step closer to achieving Book Lover Goal #2. 

And if the dishes pile up in the sink or if I’m wearing three-week-old laundry, I’m sorry.  December is the month for cleanliness and hygiene.  And editing.