NaNoWriMo – Spring edition
I used to participate in National Novel Writing Month (a challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November) and I liked it quite a bit. I enjoyed the competition as well. I am a very competitive person. I’m also an extrovert so I also liked the camaraderie. Finally, I enjoyed the mix of freedom and pressure to write as much as I could as fast as I could without having the time to make excuses about why I couldn’t, shouldn’t, or just plain wouldn’t write on any given day. Both years I participated I finished with 50,000 words or more and while 50,000 words is not a full novel in my world, it’s a damn fine start to one and it always much easier to write the last 30,000 words than it is to write the beginning. Really, there’s a whole lot of upside to taking the NaNoWriMo challenge and I highly recommend it to both established and aspiring writer.
That being said, I haven’t done NaNoWriMo for the past two years because the timing hasn’t worked out. For the last two Novemebers I’ve been in critical stages of editing contracted books. In both cases I spent several hours each day cutting or rewriting things I’ve already written. While this kind of editing is essential, and I’ve even kind of learned to like it, or at least be proud of it, that type of work is the creative and productive opposite of NaNoWriMo so it hasn’t been feasible for me to participate. Then by the time I am ready to write, it’s so far from November it’s not even funny. I admit I’ve taken the easy way out and said, “Well, November is November, something about Roman Gods or Gregorian Monks or something, not a damn thing I can do about that.” It’s not like I haven’t written novels, I have, three of them in the last 18 months, but always as this sort of start and go pace. Well, that ends here.
With Jackson in school 5 mornings a week, and Susie working full time, and no trip on our calendar for 6 weeks, I am out of excuses. March vs. November be damned. I have never been one to be hemmed in by rules and regulations so if I can’t work on the official NaNoWriMo schedule, then I’m going to make it work on mine. Starting March 1st I will put aside the redecorating of my office, and the stack of books I’ve been wanting to read, and the piles of laundry, and do this damn thing. I will write the shit out of the month of March. I will pound next month into my keyboard to the tune of 50,000 words. I will jump start my lucky number 7 novel and I will ride it hard for 31 days.
I am pumped, I am excited, and a little nervous. The one real downside to doing is in March is that I won’t have the community around me that I do in November. And, to be honest, I can’t do it alone. I would love to have some of you all join me on this adventure. It would be great to compare word counts with some of you and cheer each other on. At the very least, I would like for each of you to help keep me on my figurative toes. Every day I hope to share my daily and monthly word count on Facebook/Twitter and I’ll try to give periodic updates here too. If I fail to do so, I expect you all to call me on it. Kick me when I lose focus. Hold me to the goal. Quicker books for me, means quicker books for you too. What do you say? Can you help out?
