Today marks the first day to sign up for National Novel Writing Month 2007, which begins November 1.
A paradigm-busting, speed-writing, giggle-inducing, great-excuse-for-padding-your-word-count-with-sex-scenes, mass insanity writing event, NaNoWriMo is guaranteed to keep you in the house all of November, tattooing day glo orange Cheetos stains on your PJs, blowing keyboard fuses with spilled coffee, and proclaiming to friends and family all stiff and serious-like that no, you cannot come out and play, you have a novel to work on.
And come November 30th, that's exactly what you'll have to show for your efforts: a 50,000+ word tome that will either be:
A. A great first draft of the novel guaranteed to earn you fame, a six figure income, and Meryl Streep signing on to play the main character in the film version;
or,B. Utter crap that's good for a laugh with friends at a mass post-NaNo read, complete with crackling fire, a bottle of Scotch, and a Smith and Wesson 38.
I have done NaNo three years in a row and have three fabulously crappy novels to show for it. But within those crap-laden pages lie what I believe could possibly be the rough gems of really real novels. If I ever get around to growing up and actually applying myself.
Mostly, though, I do NaNo because it's fun.
So my bloggy friends, join me, won't you?
For more info, log onto www.nanowrimo.org – sign ups start tonight.
10 comments:
can't I just submit all my blog publications and call it my memoirs?
no?
Count me in on the epic adventure! oh, unless of course you already have. well. I'm in anyway. Lead on and thank you for providing us with incentive!
yeah, I'm kinda with Pirate on this... if I add up all of my blog posts I may be up to the number? Either way... YOU GO GIRL!
I am planning a real novel but first I have to get through this hell.
I am so impressed you have done it not just once. Can you share what you have written. Just a bit.
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
IdoNANOBLOMO.
You_know... writeablogentryevery
dayofNovember.
HEY_ itgetstougharoundThanksgiving!
Can we just submit our blog entries and call it a novel? – Uh, no. Unless, of course, your blog IS a novel. Or you NaNoBlo. And yes, things get real hairy around Thanksgiving.
Do I have time for this? – Uh, no. But you end up making time. To reach 50,000 words, you need to write approximately 1666 words a day. It kinda sucks. But in a good way.
Ms R: I feel your hell. But you’re a crack writer and think fast on your feet. You’d do marvelously. Plus, you don't have to worry about Thanksgiving :o)
Wicked: Hush. You know you love the pain.
Will I share just a little bit? Uh, okay. I’ll dig some laughably awful prose out this week. So long as y’all remember, NaNo is about sushing the inner editor for a later date and just letting the words flow. So what flows, in my case at least, is mostly ca-ca.
I might do this one day. It seems like such a commitment, and I don't think I could do that now. But how fun! I look forward to reading!
Heard a great piece on NPR a few weeks ago about a bar in NYC that hosts "Cringe Night," where participants trot out all the REALLY TRULY crappy and sappy writing that they did in private notebooks and diaries as teenagers. Obviously, you're in a room of kindred (and drunken) spirits, so the worse and more horribly embarrassing it is, the better it is. Personally, I found my own private stash of SEVENTEEN NOTEBOOKS full of such nonsense when I was moving from Florida to Virginia, every single one of which is now mercifully taking up space in some North Florida landfill. My wife chastises me for this decision, which she only found out about years later. Except for now missing out on Cringe Night, I have no regrets. But you can imagine the laments of a boy stuck in a single-sex school during the 1970s, when everyone else seemed to be having such a good time. . . .
You know, someone should publish an anonymous collection of teenage diary entries. All those hastily scribbled, drama laden entries that seem to be common to us all: the heart wrenching opposite sex diatribes; the hateful, secretive missives aimed at best friends; the pity parties we held for ourselves on the page. I still have mine and haven't read them in ages. I should be just as brave and bonfire the lot. Besides, the emotions and events of the past can still be written about. Maybe, czar, you should NaNo a novel about spending the 70s in an all boy's school :o)
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