It’s coming up to November and most writers who procrastinate by spending too much time online know what this means: NaNoWriMo.
Yep, that’s National Novel Writing Month. The premise is to spend the month of November, thirty days and nights, writing furiously and come out at the end with 50,000 words. The idea is just to output – no editing, no revision. Just write.
I’ve never done it, though I have had the urge to try. I guess it’s just that 50,000 words seems like SO MANY WORDS. It’s not really. It’s 1,666.7 per day, which isn’t that many when you really think about it. A bigger fear for me is that I’ll get halfway through and just peter out. Or that I won’t be able to fashion an awesome plot, that my characters will be flat and lame, or I’ll be too busy…
All those excuses that a writer uses to make the fact that they aren’t writing okay to themselves.
If I can’t find the time to write 1,700 words a day for a single month, it means I am never going to find the time to do it. Perhaps I should just make the time.
Are you keen for NaNoWriMo?
I will cheer you on, if you decide to do it! Hell, I’ll cheer you on even if you don’t decide to do it!
Thank you! Cheers all round!
Keen and dreading it in equal measure, to be honest. 1,667 words could take a couple of hours or most of your afternoon depending on willpower, caffeine intake and how well the gears in your head are running on any given day.
Still, there’s little more satisfying than dinging 50K with plenty of time to spare.
I’m very much hoping I get to experience that feeling!
I’m giving it a go as well. Just to know I can do it, even if it stinks to high heaven, will give me more confidence.
Exactly. Just to have the satisfaction of accomplishing something…
Good Luck!
You too!
I am teetering on the brink for the first time too.
Like you I am also concerned about petering out, so I have decided to get a rough plot outline drafted first; I might not stick to it, but it will I hope give me a fall-back and reduce the time I usually spend plotting instead of writing.