This month I am semi-participating in NaNoWriMo, which is short for National Novel Writing Month. This is a writing challenge that spans the month of November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words towards a single work of fiction.
I am going to be a bit of a NaNoWriMo rebel, however. First of all, I don’t write fiction (yet) and second of all, I can’t commit to 50,000 words (yet). However, I do want to establish better writing habits and eventually write an actual book – whether it be a work of fiction or a collection of anecdotes or the Adult Book of Pooping (hey, write what you know).
My main goal in this challenge is to create a new writing habit, which I will achieve by hitting 15,000 words for the month, and committing to writing at least 15 minutes each week day, and an hour each Saturday and Sunday. And I am publicly signing up via my blog as a way to hold myself accountable – if I tell you about it, I will be more likely to follow through. Feel free to send encouragement. And if that doesn’t work, send cake.
One of the other points to NaNoWriMo is to try to write without editing. To give you an example of how excruciatingly hard this is for me, realize that I retyped this very paragraph 6 times. Obviously, my inner Mrs. Editor is a raging lunatic.
Getting caught up in editing on-the-go and rewriting the same paragraph twenty times until I get it just right (or just “write”…hahahahhaaaaaaa! I kill me.) is not conducive to word count or creativity. I really want to learn to just write without worrying so much about how pretty it sounds. Making it pretty can come AFTER I get the actual idea on paper.
Participating in this challenge means not as many hours watching Parks & Rec on Netflix, lurking on Facebook, or playing Spider Solitaire (I have won using 4 suits. Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal.). I feel kind of sad about that, actually. I mean, this could be an entire month of no Andy Dwyer falling in the pit or Leslie Knope eating waffles. Dave does a killer Ron Swanson imitation though, and we live with April Ludgate, so I guess I will survive.
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that’s what’s goin’ down. On the down low. Fo shiz. WERD. Wait, no – WORD. Or PAGES if you are on a Mac.
Your favorite dork,
Sue
PS. Every time I see “NaNoWriMo”, I hear Mork from Ork saying “Nano, Nano” in my head. And yes, that is a little distracting, especially when I am supposed to be writing and not digging around on the internet for Robin Williams photos.
PPS. Shazbut!
PPSS. Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson!
PPPSS. I miss Robin Williams.