I have just read an article in this month’s issue of Writing Magazine warning us that the time of
year is nigh upon us again. No not Christmas, nor Halloween or Guy Fawkes Night.
It’s NaNoWriMo time again. Many of us
will recognise in less than a NaNo-second that the National Novel Writing Month the phenomenal annual writerathon is
here to take the aspiring, inspiring and uninspiring amongst us beyond the limits
of normal human output.
To achieve the necessary 50,000 words and output of 1667
words per day (around 5½ pages per day). Sounds like extreme shock therapy for
the chronic procrastinator. November’s nasty medicine month, or perhaps NovNaMedMo. Two of my writing buddies
have been past entrants, and they have, and deserve my respect and admiration
for the sheer stamina it must have taken to achieve their goal. Myself? I’m not
ready yet for the challenge. Work demands leave me little or no room for the
daily challenge. Yes I think, in the short term, a more realistic 500 words after a 12 hour working
day plus travelling time might be just about doable, but even this would be a severe interruption
to my work-bed-work-bed routine which may have irreparable damage on the
narrative structure of my story, albeit a rough first draft.
The article was written for people like me who would like to
participate but for whatever particular reason is unable to commit entitled Ten inspiring ideas to try instead of
NaNoWriMo, with ideas ranging from dusting off old manuscripts through to
watching telly, reading books (I do that anyway), planning your next book and
don’t write. xx
Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey
hey, NoMoWriMo (No More Write More)xx.
I think it would be a great idea to make November a personal
writing event, and set your own goal, even if it is merely writing a line a two
before bed after a hard day at work.
I haven’t yet set any specific goals for November, other
than the goals I already have in place, and having thought about it I don’t
think I will. However, I think I will keep a diary for thirty days during that
month just recording each day, what I have read, researched, written, planned
and thought about. November is going to be my writing (enhanced) awareness month.
During December, I will evaluate the sum total of the 30 entries in my diary
which hopefully will give me a clearer idea of my commitment and productivity
and maybe will drive me to manage my time a little better.
Back to NaNoWriMo. Long
may this competition reign. I want NaNoWriMo
to hang on less than a handful of years more and wait for my retirement,
and then I’ll show you what I can do.
Well that’s my 500 words for today… (no wait up… one, two,
three…) perhaps not it’s four hundred and seventy seven, (note how I spelt out
the numbers so 477 would count as four words instead of one, just to get my
word count up.
Having explained all that my word count is now well in
excess of 500 so I’ll say ta ra and if you’re entering this year good luck with
NaNoWriMo.
http://nanowrimo.org/
