IVL

Saturday, October 01, 2005

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month. To celebrate this, for the past few years there has been a sort of... well it's not exactly a contest so much as a test of endurance. It's called NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month.)

If you visit NaNoWriMo.org (as of this writing, the site is down - I'm guessing it's because today is the first day of signup and the traffic crashed the site. Keep checking it though, it'll be back) you'll find out a bit more about it. But the long and short of it is you attempt to write a novel at least 50,000 words in length in one month.

Of course, how good is a novel that's just cranked out like that? Depends on the writer. But quality is not the goal. Quality can come later. For me, the purpose of it is just to prove to yourself that you can do it.

I want to write a novel someday. I've wanted to do it for years and I've got drawerfuls of attempts at it. Outlines, character sketches, brief ideas for stories. But nothing ever worked out.

Last year I tried NaNoWriMo for the first time because I was intrigued by the idea of it. The idea of a deadline and having to make myself writer a certain amount every day was appealing. I thought it would be the kick in the ass I needed to do it. Instead I failed. I got up to around 6,000 words and then life intruded and time ran out. I was pissed at myself but I think I took it out on NaNo and said I'd never do it again.

I've had a year to mellow out - but more importantly, I've come up with an idea for it that actually appeals to me. So I'm going to try again. I'm going to blog it as I go like I did last year.

Wish me luck.

Written by atomicweightofcheese @ 10:02 PM ||

3 Comments:

At 1:32 PM, Sassy Shae said...: This is my first year for NANOWRIMO. I hope to at least finish, which is my biggest flaw as a writer. I aways have good ideas, I just never finish.

My roommate has won three times and she doesn't consider herself as a writer.
At 2:56 PM, Asinine Army said...: Fascinating idea. I wonder what would stop you from writing a novel and then submitting it at the end of the month.

'Whew! Got it done.
At 3:05 PM, atomicweightofcheese said...: What stops me is I start feeling like my idea is lame, I feel daunted by the deadline. 50k is a helluva lot of words when you think about it. It felt like homework used to feel in high school when all you wanted to do is procrastinate. "Oh I won't write tonight and I'll do 3000 words tomorrow."

I am the queen of procrastination. And last year I jumped into it last minute with only a vague story idea that just didn't go anywhere.

This year though I've got a really good idea and I'm doing some prep for it. I hope I can do it.

If I do make it I can submit it to the NaNo guys and they add up the word count and I get a sense of accomplishment and a button :)