October is almost at an end and just around the corner is November – also known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The objective of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel in 30 days. The target is 50,000 words and the emphasis in on quantity over quality.
Each year I ponder the question, is this the year I buckle down and do my NaNoWriMo project?
Each year I find myself thinking, this is not a good time to do it. I have enough on my plate already.
To attain the target of 50,000 words over 30 days I would have to average 1,666 words a day. I have been known to sit down and bang out anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 words in a writing session, but I have not yet reached the point where I will do that consistently over a period of 30 days.
A couple of years ago I challenged myself to write 1,000 words a day for ten consecutive days. I did that to flex my NaNoWriMo writing muscles. They were sore by the end of that ten day period.
Is this the year that I throw caution to the wind and jump into the foray and declare to myself and to the public that I will do it?
Whether I do it this year or not I know one thing. Doing a NaNoWriMo project is one item on my bucket list.
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Just do it, dude. What’s your favourite reading genre? Stick to that.
Then think of four characters – totally unrelated. Breathe life into them.
Consider how each life interacts with the other, how they can come together. Say 2,500 each back-story & description – that’s 20% of your target.
Then let them find each other in your mind and on your word processor. Then, let them take over the story – all you have to worry about is the ending. Job done. Just don’t over-think it; getting it down on paper is the purpose of NaNoWriMo – end of.
That’s how my story panned out for this year’s entry. Worry about perfection and editing, later. Go on…you know you wanna
Thanks for your comments, zebedeerox. I’ve been thinking that if I’m going to invest the time and energy in November on this, I would really like to further my work in progress of some six to eight years now, a science-fiction adventure.I have several scenes I’ve already written and some nice character interactions, some that have even surprised me. I love that part of the writing process, when the characters come to life and take over the story.
It would be nice to finish that story one of these days!
Yeah, you’re write, I know I wanna
I doubt I’ll ever have a November that’s clear of any deadlines or responsibilities, so it might as well be now, right?
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I think this is going to be your year! Good luck!
Thanks, run4joy59. I’m still telling myself that I’m undecided and not ready for this, and I’m starting to not believe me
I’m in! Thanks for linking to my blog… I look forward to following you.
Thanks, Xenogirl. I’ve done it now, I’ve gone to the NaNoWriMo web site and registered. Now I’m saying to myself, what the heck am I getting myself into?
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