NaNoWriMo

NanoWriMo

November is NanoWRImo month. NanoWriMo, for those that may be interested or may not know is short for National Novel Writing Month. It is an exercise (for lack of a better word) where the object is to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. Sounds crazy? I agree it is indeed more than a bit insane. Sounds impossible? Well upon first glance I thought the same thing as well. However, there are a few things that work quite a bit in your advantage should you choose to accept this mission.

First, the main focus is on quantity, NOT quality. Chris Baty’s book about this called “No plot No problem, A low stress,High velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days” is quite useful to anyone that is thinking of trying this out this year. In it he says something along the lines of “quit trying to write the next best seller and focus on writing something that won’t make the person reading it vomit.” That line more than any other helped me quite a bit when I did this on my own early this year in February. The results it is safe to say, were NOT great by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, parts of it after going back to read it a few months later were flat out pathetic to say the least.

However, it DID allow me to at least get a VERY rough first draft out of my head and onto the paper (or computer). It DID allow me to confirm that this whole “maybe I COULD actually write something worthwhile” idea that had been bumping around in my head for years wasn’t quite so insane after all. Will it lead any where? I don’t know, and truth be told I doubt it. However, it COULD lead some where and I had a good time doing it. Even if the results were crap, they were MY crap so the sense of accomplishment was worth it if for no other reason. Anyways, if any of you out there have ever thought about writing a book and been looking for a push to get you started, perhaps this is it. If you are interested you can go to the website http://www.nanowrimo.org and find countless other people doing the same thing. I think there were 60,000 people that did it last year if I am not mistaken. Therefore, even if you ARE crazy for attempting such insanity, at least you won’t be crazy and alone in doing so. If any of my three readers are interested in or planning to participate, by all means let me know.

Take it easy,

BD

tags:Lonely moon,shortstory,Sunday Scribblings,NaNoWriMo,smartass,
tags:writing,waitress,contest,humor