NaNoWriMo 2010

I decided today - on a whim! - that I'm going to participate in NaNoWriMo. That's short for National Novel Writing Month. National - that's self-explanitory. Novel - 50,000 words. Writing - that's me, hopefully. Month - November. I've been tempted to try NaNoWriMo since I heard about it a few years ago, but it never seemed like the "right time" - I always had other stuff going on that seemed more important. But I'm so, so tired of saying that one day I will write. I'm 24 years old and I don't think there will be a time in the future when I'll have fewer responsibilities than I do at this point. So: the time is now. Now is the time. In November, I'm going to write 50,000 motherfucking WORDS. All in a row. Hopefully in a way that makes sense.

And that is where my expectations for this project end. Some people put a lot of work into this BEFORE November even starts: they create outlines, plots, character sketches...but not me. Right now I'm just looking at it as an "experiment in output" as the website put it - I just want something that will force me to sit down and put fingers to keypad in pursuit of something other than a letter grade. I don't have a really clear idea of what my plot is going to be. They say "write what you know", right? I DO have a title, though! "A Year With One Foot in the Grave."

As for your expectations, I do not intend to edit this thing very much as we proceed. Editing is for people who have time. Editing is for people who have enough words, and we're not there yet. My goal is to produce enough words: in my mind, the work I produce during NaNoWriMo 2010 will be the block of marble from which my own personal David will be hewn. Which is all a long way of saying, don't expect much, and for GOD'S SAKE do not expect art. Yet.

You can check out the basics by clicking here. I, for my part, will be rocking back and forth under my desk.