Friday, October 31, 2008

NaNoWriMo, here I come

That's short for National Novel Writing Month, a yearly event in which people sign up and strive to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I've registered. Writing starts at 12 PM on November 1st. Yes, that's tomorrow.

Does that strike you as ironic? Perhaps it should. I've only managed 10 posts in the whole of 2008. I'm gonna do it anyway.

It's an exercise in quantity, not quality, according to the NaNoWriMo website. "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."

Hey, that's kind of Julia Cameron-esque. Akin to Morning Pages. Just write. Don't edit. Just keep your pen moving. OK, I can do that. At least I think I can do that.

Am I allowed to put in a disclaimer so that when I'm tearing my hair out in two weeks--or two days--these words won't be coming back to haunt me?

1 comment:

Jana said...

How's NaNoWriMo going? I always think I'd like to do it, but November is the worst month for me - full of conferences and travel as well as a major holiday. Maybe I could pick a different month, but not November. But you must be halfway through! Anything interesting coming up? I know that's not the point, but it's been my experience that it comes up when you least expect it.