NaNoWriMo
For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a yearly challenge to write a minimum 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Participants can do all the planning they like in the preceeding months, but all prose must be writen only during November. The Org behind NaNoWriMo emphasizes quantity over quality, since you are writing at the break-neck speed of about 1,700 words a day, so one wouldn’t expect to see The Great Gatsby rise from the pile at month’s end. Rather the point is to force yourself to write, whenever the chance arises, and to do so until your goal is met.
I took part a few years ago, after discovering the project on November 1st (meaning I had done no planning and was already 12 hours behind) and got to about 12,500 words before stopping. I still had plenty of time left, but the meat of the story had become so bad while at the same time producing such an interesting plot line that I wanted to ditch the story and save the plot for a better time. (I won’t go into detail but I will say that fans of The Thomas Crown Affair would appreciate it)
I’m going to try again this year, with a few months to plan. I don’t expect to produce something noteworthy, but a recent series of events in my life requires some catharsis, and this seems like the best means.
That is all.