National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is nearly upon us! As I write this, I'm at my region's kick-off party with about 30 other people. Quite impressive, especially considering there are many more in the area who couldn't make it!
What the heck is NaNoWriMo, you ask? Great question! During the month of November every year, thousands of people simultaneously (well, sort of) embark on the task of writing an entire 50,000 word (or more) novel within the month. It's designed to inspire you and get you writing, to let the juices flow and just write.
So many people who want to write a novel never even start, and others start but never finished. It's easy to get bogged down, trying to make it perfect the first time, but that is a mistake! No novel is perfect the first go. Rather than worry about it, "embrace the suck" as a fellow NaNoer put it (sorry for not crediting you but I forget who it was): just write and get the damned thing down on paper...er, word processor and worry about fixing it later. Edit it in December, or in the case of my NaNo from last year, leave it on your hard drive for a couple of years until you're ready to face it again.
Last year was my first year. I learned about it sometime around November 5th or so, so I got a late start, yet I finished my 63k novel several days early...and that's not including the 3800 words I took out because they were too much of a diversion (I'm saving them for a sequel or short story). I'm not saying that to brag, but to tell you, you can do it! Even if you don't read this post until the 8th, you can do it...I'm here for you! There are all kinds of support groups...check www.nanowrimo.org (you'll want to sign up, anyway) and there's a forum for it on www.accentuateservices.com/xmb. Sorry for no hyperlinks tonight, I just don't have the mental capacity for them!
29 minutes to go...wheee!!!!!!
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