As everybody in the world knows except me, November is National Novel Writing Month, an idea dreamed up by Californian Chris Baty. The point is to churn out a 50,000-word novel between All Saints' Day and 11:59:59pm on November 30. It's quantity, not quality that counts. Started in 1999, NaNo has spread to England according to The Guardian.Most all my favorite book bloggers are well off the dime by now, with 3 - 5 - 7, 000 words completed already. Lord, and I struggle to hit 1,000 every morning on my novel.
I suspect I could use the exercise of just writing hell-for-leather. As I've said before I do tend to start tweaking words and grammar - even character names - as I go along, which is not a good thing. I am getting better at just churning out, but plot/place/character ideas come to me in mid-write, and I find it unsettling to leave what I've previously written for a later edit if my idea-mobile has made a major/minor turn. Damn that linear thinking!
So I could probably free my writing-soul quite a bit by going "nanners." Maybe next year. For now, I'll sit on the sidelines cheering you on! Pass the gin.
1 comment:
You describe perfectly exactly why I like it. I much prefer to tinker than look at a blank screen. I edit as I go and I am traditionally very slow at adding the new material. NaNo forces you to just kick it out and fix it later. Great, um, fun. No, really.
Anyway, thanks for the well wishes!
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