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Tuesday 8 October 2013

Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey NaNoWriMo


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/