Every year, I say I'm going to do NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that, during the month of November, you write a 50,000 word novel from start to finish. The goal is both daunting and entirely doable at the same time. It breaks down to roughly 1,600 words a day, which isn't a hard goal to reach. I did a modified version of NaNoWriMo to finish And You Tell Me I Am Home, and while I didn't write 50,000 words, I did keep up the pace until I was finished. It took me a month and a half, but I finally - finally! - had a draft finished.
Thing is, NaNoWriMo is always in November, which is a hard month for me. Not only because of the holiday and family obligations everyone has, but because I work in a mall and everything goes insane from Black Friday on. The last thing I want to face after a long day of angry Christmas shoppers (don't kid yourself, you are all angry) is a blank computer screen and a 1,600 word deadline.
Right now I'm thinking of ways I could make this manageable. Reorganzing my writing to routine to accomodate the beast, and then I could return to regularly scheduled programming once November ends. These are my ideas so far:
1) Writing practice. Instead of writing about a random prompt for 20 minutes, that time could be spent working on the novel. This way I'm assuring that for at least 20 minutes every day, something gets written.
2) Modify this blog. If I shift down to a post a week and maybe an excerpt if the writing goes well, I can turn that time into writing. I would then return to the regular posting schedule at the end of the month.
When all is said and done, it's not a difficult schedule to keep. It's just a lot of pressure for those 30 days, trying to get everything done in time. Who knows if I'll even be able to finish? At some point I feel I need to make the attempt.
And I still have two months to plan for the beast.
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good luck... i tried doing that one year but i wasn't very good at it... and i'm more into writing long stuff... i'm pretty good at bloging and maybe short stories. ^_^ then it kind of stressed me out... so i didn't do it after that. but really i hope the best for you! I admire people that can make that goal. Good luck again!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I have the tendency to start one idea and then have it take off into something much, much larger than I originally intended. I do hope everything works out!
ReplyDeleteNovember is hard for me too, work gets CRAZY with Christmas packages and people taking last hurrah vacations before the real madness sets in. I'd love to do it--1600 words a day doesn't seem so bad! Didn't they say they picked November because it's a busy month for everyone? Sadists. lol
ReplyDeleteIt's 1667 words a day. Most of the time, I was able to keep this pace for the novel, so it's doable.
ReplyDeleteI will if you will?
I think it might take the next two months to be convinced and get comfortable with that idea.
ReplyDeleteOf course, starting today it looks like my hours are getting slashed big time. One of the subs took my grandparent's route as their primary route so that was like 1/2 my hours every month. I'll probably have time to do it, but I really have to think about it.
This is a good plan "I approve of this":)
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