Well, I have decided—gulp—to do NaNoWriMo this year (National Novel Writing Month). In fact, I'll be starting this next Saturday, November 1, after handing out all my Halloween candy to weirdly dressed youngsters.
Am I ready for NaNo? Not on your life. Do I have a solid plot and all my research done? No, and no. So why am I doing this to myself? Because I have a wonderful list of procrastinating activities that keep me solidly on my duff not writing, and because I can research for years instead of writing, and because writing the first sentence of a book is scarier than Halloween. I have been working on one novel since 1998. Yes, 1998. It can be done. But I’ve discovered that I need to write another novel—the one I’ll start on Saturday—before I can write that one. How’s that for procrastination? I really should win a prize. Here is what my notes look like right now:
And since I write long-hand, I will need to type up whatever
gets written before I can do a word count for NaNo (more procrastination, heh). Here’s what I’d rather be doing:
Or even this:
But the highest praise goes to NaNo for getting people,
young and old, involved in the process and thrill of creation. And if, by
midnight on November 30, I have my plotting done and even a few chapters
first-drafted, I will be dancing around the room with joy. What a sight.
Check out NaNoWriMo, and keep writing!
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