Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Write a Novel in Just 30 Days!

No, it's not some infomercial that no one wants to hear. Rather, it's National Novel Writing Month -- or NaNoWriMo for short. Starting on November 1st, any participants have until midnight, November 30th to finish a 50,000 word novel. As the site states: Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down. It breaks down into 1666 words a day or 5.83 pages a day, depending on how you look at it. Completely run on the honor system, the only prize is the reward of completing the task. I'm seriously thinking about doing this. No words can be written ahead of time, but plotting and outlining is permitted. I don't think I'll be able to finish, but I have a killer idea that I'd like to run with under these rules and circumstances. If I decide to go with it, even a little activity like this blog will probably fall to the way side or simply revolve around the other project. I'll have to see how it goes. My other work in progress is actually progressing right now. But as a member of my writing group said, "November is over a month away. You might be in a slump by then."

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