Saturday, October 15, 2005

Say It Five Times Fast: NaNoWriMo

Over the past couple years I've read several articles about NaNoWriMo and been tempted. Now, I notice Lisa is likely to sign up this year, and I too am tempted.

I've been writing enough that there's at least a chance I could actually get out 50,000 words in a month. My problem is that I'm only maybe a fourth (perhaps not even that much) of the way through the novel I started writing for my class. And yet I'm within just a few pages of having written all that I'm allowed to turn in for that class now, too, so I'm already in a precarious position vis a vis continuing to work on it.

So far, the experience of taking a class to self inflict a deadline has worked. But when the deadline goes away, I can't swear I won't lose track again. Already I spent one night this week revising a completely different story I had written back in January.

So, it would be perfect to work on the current thing for NaNoWriMo ... but that's against the rules. And it's one thing to maybe get started a little early, but getting a 13,000 word head start is a bit much. More to the point, there's a new idea I've had over the past couple of weeks that would be perfect for the "dash one off" format. But I worry it would absolutely kill the momentum for this other one which has otherwise been going along so well.

Hm. This wouldn't really be a problem if it hadn't now been nine years since the last time I finished a whole novel. In all that time, I'm probably as close now to finishing one as I have been in all that time, so I'd really like to not fuck it up. We'll see.

2 comments:

Lisa Armsweat said...

Actually, I have already signed up! I have a mental outline of this new book I will be attempting to complete in November, but that's it.
For me personally, I am excited to leave behind the swirling vortex of pain that IS the novel I have been toiling over for the past 9 years. And yes, that's not a typo-- I have been writing it since 1996. So, as you can see, for me it will be nice to cheat on that book for a month and feel OK doing it... it's for NaNoWriMo!
Either way, I wish you the best in whatever you decide to write and do. :) Good luck!

Matthew said...

Thanks for your best wishes.

I am also signed up, although I can't say for sure what I'll be doing, something new or something old, or something I'm already working on. Either way, I figure anything that keeps me motivated to spend my free time writing is worthwhile.

I have an idea that's fairly new and would seem to fit the NaNoWriMo format perfectly (ie, it's kinda silly, kinda lends itself to just writing without regard to direction or plot, and it has a great potential to be very, very bad). But I'll have to see how I'm feeling about this all once we're closed to November 1. Who knows what I'll want to write come then.