(Sorry, it’s a weak joke, but I couldn’t help myself!)
November is National Novel Writing Month. The purpose? To encourage writers to just sit down and write – a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month. Here’s a bit from their website:
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 sounds good – and fun. But 50,000 words is a lot for a slow poke like me. I did the math and it’s doable – only 1,666 words a day. But when I adjust for weekends and holidays in November I’d have to write closer to 2,500 words a day to make 50,000 words in a month and I can already tell you that’s not going to happen!
As for quantity over quality – that’s almost tougher for me to swallow. One of the reasons I write so slowly is because I write carefully as I go along. I finish slower, but my edits are much faster!
Still, I’d like to do something. My youngest started attending school for a full day starting this week – which means I have seven hours to myself during the day. Now, not all of that can be spent writing since I do have other things demanding my time and attention, but it does mean that I have fewer excuses not to be more productive. So while I’m not going to formally sign up for the NaNo challenge, I’m announcing my commitment to the idea here. I pledge to you that I will do my utmost to use my time well and write as much as is possible in the next month.
Cross my heart.
