I had really good intentions to take part in the National Novel Writing Month this November… but it’s now 6th, and that means I’m already way behind. The goal of the event is for each participant to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (the length of November, see). You have to start from scratch, write an awful lot, and get it done before the end of the month. The NaNoWriMo event has its own website and support from tons of other wouldbe writers – and started way back in 1999. From a little over a hundred participants 8 years ago, last year about 100,000 people got involved – and most of them didn’t hit the target (only about 1 in 5 manage the full 50K).
I would like to imagine, if I really put my mind to it, that I could come up with something that fits the brief. I’m not claiming by any measure that it would be any good… but, 50,000 words of slogging wouldn’t be out of the question. I recently wrote 10,000 words of gaming material based on the 14th Century Avignon Papacy and associated Schism. I have written close to 50,000 before putting ‘The Underplex‘ together, although that one definitely took longer to a month and left me dead to the world for about 6 months, haunted by the process and the grammar. I suffered terrible writers block during that 6 months and since the beginning of this year have I really tried to get back into the swing of regular writing. I maintain so many blogs precisely for the reason that I hope it will urge me into creativity on a regular basis on whatever subject happens to come to hand.
So, can I find my groove and get into the NaNoWriMo mindset before it’s too late? Given a full month, you need to write 1,666 words a day (with a little change)… Assuming I start right now, I have to clock in 2,000 words a day instead. I feel a sinking feeling already…
