As everyone knows, there are two kinds of people in the world: those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those that don’t. I used to place myself in the former category, but now I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to alter long-held beliefs. There are actually three kinds of people in the world: those who’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, those who have heard of it and have actually entered, and those who’ve heard of it and say they’re going to enter year after year after year, yet haven’t ever done it because they’ve constantly been busy at work or busy with other writing projects or busy working on his stupid blog.
Disclaimer: technically, that’s not three kinds of people. That’s two kinds of people where one of the two kinds was further subdivided into two kinds of people. I need to ponder this some more.
For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is short for “Naturally Nomadic Writhing Monsters” . . . Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right. Hang on.
Okay, here we are. It’s short for “National Novel Writing Month.” Yeah, that’s what I meant. The month is November and the idea is to write a minimum 50,000 word novel in thirty days. If you do it, you win. If you don’t, you clearly spent too much time at the Thanksgiving table.
I’ve thought about entering for years. It’s a haven for thousands of budding novelists who’ve been putting it off and putting it off and putting it off and just need an excuse to write more than 1,600 words a day, every day, for an entire month. Or, it’s a giant conspiracy solely created to make me feel bad about not writing.
However, that’s all over because this year, I’m gonna do it. Well, sort of. First of all, it’s cheating to start NaNoWriMo with an already-started manuscript. At best you can begin with notes and outlines, but I’m already well into this current book and I can’t stop. So I’m entering and disqualifying myself simultaneously. The other problem: it’s November. The only worse month for writing than that is December. I mean, who picks a month with only thirty days and a four-day holiday in there? I mean, sure, technically having a long holiday means you should get more time in. But let’s face it, most of us have to spend it politely eating three or four different Thanksgiving dinners as we travel from family to family. That leaves precious little time for scribblin’.
It should be October. No serious holidays. Maximum number of days in a month. And, most importantly, October is now. I don’t want to wait ten more days to write. I’ve got scenes to write, characters to develop, and plot-holes to create. Those things just don’t happen while leisurely waiting for the calendar to flip.
Of course, my real goal for the year was to have the first draft of the entire manuscript done by December 31. I could wrap up the entire year with a NaNoWriQuar and still not come close to hitting my self-imposed lofty goal of 150,000 words.
Especially when a good chunk of those words are on this site and not over on the manuscript.
Gotta run…
on October 20, 2009 at 1:20 am
I won nanowrimo in 07, failed massively in 08 (to be fair, I had just bought a house and had a sinus infection) and I hope to rock it again this year. Good luck!
on October 20, 2009 at 8:55 am
yeah, good luck! Not sure if you’re entering or not, but goodluck whatever! lol
tusc 🙂
on October 20, 2009 at 10:35 am
If it helps motivate you, I will ask you every day how your writing is going. And if you skip a day, or didn’t double up one day so you could skip the next, I’ll give you one of those stern, disciplinarian looks I’m so good at. Like, “Hey. Hey, you. You did not write 1600 words. That wasn’t very nice to your inner author.”
on October 20, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I’ve considered it. I really should. But my November is looking pretty booked up. Maybe I’ll just say screw it and give it a try and if I fail at it, at least I’ve written *something* that’s not my blog. Good luck – and I say if you’re inspired now go for it, it’s a cute gimmick but what if that inspiration dries up by then?
on October 20, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Oh, good grief. Is it NaNoWriMo time again? I’m just going to pretend I didn’t read that. It always sounds like a lot of fun, and I sign up. I write about 100 words and have severe meet-up envy, but then the rest of my life-stuff swallows me up.
But good luck to you, Charlie!
on October 20, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I must have been in the dark, because I’ve never heard of that!
I think you should enter Charlie, and I think you will win!!
on October 20, 2009 at 5:41 pm
There’s a fourth kind. The kind that has heard of NaNoWriMo, but has never even remotely contemplated writing a novel. That would be me. Though once I heard of it, I promptly referred it to my nephew who seems to like writing. Don’t think he ever entered though.
Good luck with it!
I certainly enjoy the writing on your blog. I’m sort of in the NaNoReaMo camp. Reading 50,000 words in a month, not a problem.