In less than a week, I will join thousands of other writers across this great nation of ours, and attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Eek!
It doesn’t seem like much when you break it down.
- 1,667 words a day
- 11,667 words a week
But as realistic as those numbers seem, it’s not that easy. Last year I only got to 25,000 words. Lucky for me, I wasn’t doing the official NaNo count. I cheated. I used all that frenetic energy to finish my first novel.
This year, I actually want to do 50,000 words worth of novel-writing. I’ve gone so far as to postponed working on the outline of Guilt’s Heart so that I could do it in November.
[insert stunned photo of some crazy lady]
(I meant that, by the way. For that phrase to be up there in brackets as if I forgot to put in the photo. I meant that…)
Why? I can’t imagine, but there it is. And now I’m having second thoughts. Do I really want to write 50,000 words of crap? I pretty much wrote 25,000 words of crap last year, and I’m still paying the price. The last crit I got pointed out all the sentences that had way too many ideas crammed into ’em. As soon as the lovely Critter showed me the errors of my ways, I thought
…but I don’t write that way…
…usually folks say my sentences are repetitive, not crammed with too much–
Oh. NaNoWriMo.
I was cramming. And because the movie running in my head refuses to stop once I start reading my story, I just never caught on I had done that.
I’m a little worried that I’ll do the same thing all over again. There is the argument that, well, I’m aware of it now. So maybe I’ll be able to catch myself and write those thoughts as notes rather that half-ass prose. But I could just flail in the push to get the word counts and spend a whole year trying to fix it.
It all comes down to commitment, doesn’t it?
Over of J.S. Chancellor’s blog Welcome to the Asylum, the plucky author urged her readers to commit to their story. Either take it seriously or not. Or, as in her example, lease it or buy it. In other words – own it – own your story.
I understand that. Yes, I’m still a wannabe “hobby” writer, but I do love my story. I do want to give it the best chance possible to reach readers (within reason, of course). And what better way to follow through on that commitment than letting go and writing the damn thing?
Yup. Sign me up!
We can do this, people. 😉
Related articles
- Just signed up for NaNoWriMo (writeontheworld.wordpress.com)
- It’s NaNoWriMo time… (jamesgardneruk.wordpress.com)
- The insanity of NaNoWriMo (misshelenwrites.wordpress.com)
N. E. White 
I’m going to skip it again this year. 😛
Fine. Be that way.
I am right there with you with the jitters. My massive writing sprint today was to get myself to the place to be able to finish the first draft of book two without worrying about finishing the second draft of book one.
And…I DID IT! I just finished rewriting the epilogue just now. So hallelujah, wipe the sweat from my brow, and I’m ready to move forward.
You’re right. We can do this.
The wonders of an unexpected day off. I wish life wasn’t so expensive. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a two-day work week? Ah, we can dream.
Glad you finished. I’m gonna do some pre-planning this weekend. Not sure what that involves, but I’ll be doing it.
I’m doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year, too!!!!
Excellent, Learco. I’ll look you up and we can be buddies.
I am also jittery about this whole thing but I am signed up.. my name at NaNo is maggielr. If you want to be writing buddies, we could be encouraging for each other.
Hey Maggie – you bet! The more encouragement I can get, the better. I keep thinking, oh, it’s not the scary, I can always bale out… 😦 Bad thinking. I’ll make it. I’ll make it!