NaNoWriMo 2008

I've done it again. I've signed up for NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to complete the first rough draft of a novel in the span of 30 days. It will be a short novel, only 50,000 - 60,000 words, and necessarily not a good novel, nor an edited novel, in that time span. November was selected to be The Month because it's otherwise very busy (at least in the USA, with almost a week lost to family traditions at Thanksgiving) and because it is a short month, so the pain is curtailed.

I've tried to do it once or twice before (once "officially", once planning without actually, seriously, intending to carry through). The longest I've lasted is 2 days.

You have to write 1,666 words a day, after all, to achieve the goal. Crikey. If I can make it through one week, I will feel that I have gained over past years. My true goal is 14 days -- if I can do that (23,333 words), I'll be happy. Maybe I can even keep it going for a whole month, but I'm planning a trip to the Midwest, so I don't know if that's realistic.

Actually, when I'm in The Zone, I can easily type 1600 words in a cohesive story in an hour. I've done it. Nanowrimo is an exercise to strengthen my stamina so that I can do it more regularly than once a month or so.

So I will at least start. There is a "write-in" set up at a nearby coffee house for tomorrow afternoon (I set it up). I and at least one other person (whom I've never met -- he or she simply responded to my posting on the Nanowrimo website) will be there, ready to spew words into our laptops. I have backup plans -- a pile of index cards with plot twists and scenes on them, to be added and worked into the plot as needed when the ideas dry up (e.g., "Space aliens land in a nearby park" or "Enter: Destructive Dog" or "Enter: Cute baby"). I am prepared to write badly and baldly and wordily, in honor of reaching that goal.

Wish me luck!