NaNoWriMo??!!

I have undertaken an endeavor that I've been putting off for years. The notion has always been an intriguing one, but I've always had a million and one excuses as to why I couldn't make the attempt. What is NaNoWriMo, do you ask? It's not a freaky dance, nor an exotic cooking style, nor a board game. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place every November. The NaNo creators (you can find them at www.nanowrimo.org) challenge anyone to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Although 50,000 words doesn't make a relatively large novel, it does make a great challenge to create a fictional novel from start to finish in a 30 day period.

NaNo is all about output. I've started many stories in the past I've had great hopes of turning into an actual novel one day, but Alas, they remain even now in the short story category because my steam runs out too quickly. One thing the NaNo people reiterate multiple times is when you do this, you WILL write a bunch of crap (hey, at least they're honest). But what this can do for you as a writer is force you to write and write and write, which helps negate the novel burn-out factor many of us experience with writing such a large story.

What helps people succeed in this challenge which doesn't occur for most of us non-employed novelists is one thing: a deadline. It's like most any other challenge (physical or mental) - when you consider doing something not easy, it's intriguing, but the excuse monster appears to say 'you can't accomplish that', 'you don't have time to do that', 'you don't have the ability to accomplish that'. Common people - enough with the negative excuses already!!!

We all waste so much time making excuses as to why we can't succeed in many things: weight loss (been there), remaining in a job we hate (been there), not completing schooling we have 'always' wanted to do (been there), not traveling to places we've always wanted to go (been there), and so much more. I digress...back to NaNoWRiMo, it's a challenge to write 50,000 words and you "win" if you complete it by the November 30th deadline. My sister-in-law has done it 3 times, numerous people complete it every year, and I believe the NaNoWriMo currently has over 115,000 people registered on their website to give it a try. I agree that November, with the holiday season looming, makes for an awful month for such an endeavor. But what the heck, we only live once, right?!

Gotta get back to writing. Word count is currently 22,629 and growing...