From the way the work & family schedules are filling up it looks like this year I'll have to be content with staying on the sidelines for National Novel Writing Month. Being in the cheering section, however will give me time to do some pep talks, natter on in motivational posts and provide links to whatever free resources I can find for the participants, aka serving as an unofficial NaNoWriMo nag (which is almost as much fun as joining in.)
If you're still on the fence about whether or not to participate, here are
Ten Reasons to Decide Today to Write Your Novel This November
1. As soon as you do, you can begin the important preliminary work of endlessly agonizing over the title.
2. Every waffling writer who hasn't decided will openly envy you.
3. Good friends will worry about you until November. Concerned friends will try to talk you out of it before November. Real friends will offer to babysit for you during November.
4. It gives you a legit reason to stockpile notebooks, pens, Post-Its and all the other office supplies you love, plus real motivation to fix that lock on the spare room door.
5. "Someday" can now have a date: November 1st.
6. Thanksgiving dinner can be at the parents/in-laws/sibling's home this year. You'll also have a built-in excuse as to why you had to bring a store-bought pie.
7. The announcement will offend that dimwit you know who has been writing the same novel since high school (and will stop said dimwit from asking you to read the latest rewrite.)
8. Three words: Love Scene Research.
9. When the ex asks you what you'll be writing the book about, you can simply smile mysteriously (and repeat this torture for six more weeks.)
10. You'll have an utterly luxurious forty-nine days to prepare, versus the usual one hour of absolute panic on October 31st.
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Still teetering on the fence. I'm trying to fathom how I can write (minimum) 1600 words per day, keep up my blog/photography/daily chores.
ReplyDeleteAND finish my serial writing experiment by Nov 1st, so I'm working just one plot instead of two simultaneously.
Might be too daunting for me this year, though I haven't ruled it out just yet.
I'm torn between two titles: "Has Your Brain Been Sucked Into A Black Hole?" a SciFi novel, or "What Were You Thinking, Crazy Person?" perhaps a Regency romance...
I was in the same place as you, Terlee, and after a lot of brooding over the schedule I knew I had to let go of something or write myself into the ground. I really wanted to do NaNo this year, but at the same time I have to avoid burnout, and I can still join in by cheering on the participants and finding some useful links.
DeleteIsn't it funny how we always try to do more than we can, and then when we force ourselves to make good choices and work wisely, we still feel a little guilty?
ROFL! I especially like #7.
ReplyDeleteIt really works, too, Deb. :) The first time I joined in NaNoWriMo this one writer I knew sent me a three-page tirade on how I was cheapening our art by joining the great unwashed masses, how badly it reflected on me as a pro, and how I should never darken that writer's door again, etc. Since said writer also liked to be condescending about my work while using me as an unpaid editor, I was actually okay with being forever shunned. :)
DeleteI have tried both Nanowrimo and Camp Nanowrimo but haven't quite been able to keep going. But 2013 is another year...
ReplyDeleteAlways a new chance to give it another go, Maurice. Hope you will.
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