I’ve been extremely quiet online recently. I’m sure you all noticed. I haven’t been idle though! I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo 2014.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write fifty thousand words in thirty days, during the month of November.
No, I am not crazy, and I am in good company. Three hundred, ten thousand, and ninety five people started NaNoWriMo in November of 2013, and more started this year. Participants are from all over the world. Even though I write in my own home, or at a coffee shop, and am writing my own bit of magic, I know that I am in good company, that thousands of people, all over the world are joining me in my quest of writing fifty thousand words in one month.
It does sound impossible, especially if you do not have a regular writing practice, or have never done anything like this before, but the thing is…every one has a story. It could be your personal story. It could be a story you have had rattling around in your brain pan for years, it could be a story you heard and that has captured your imagination. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, romance, science fiction, mystery, space western with vampires and tentacle creatures, or even a family history. It could be a combination of all of the above! Who the heck knows, except you. It is your story.
Still, it sounds like a lot of pressure to do in one month, does it not? The only real goal for NaNoWriMo, is that you write, type or chisel out fifty thousand words. They do not have to be the perfect words. They do not have to be good words. They just have to be words, and fifty thousand of them. No editing is allowed during the month of NaNo November. Editing is for December. You will notice that I am padding my word count by writing out the words for numbers and not using contractions. That is allowed, and is not cheating. (You can not see me, but I am shaking my head emphatically.) It is written in the rules!
What do you get when you hit the fifty thousand word goal? You get to say you win. You get to be in awe of your own self, because you set a crazy mountainous goal of writing fifty thousand words in only thirty days. You get the “prestige” of doing something that another person would be too intimidated to do. You get to prove to yourself that you can do amazing things, when you devote your time and effort. You also get your manuscript to edit and perhaps turn into a printed or published book.
If you want to know what I’m writing on…it is a dual project. I am mainly writing a first draft on applying project management processes and tools to planning a sabbatical. Really! It is pretty interesting and will spawn a couple of workbooks as well. Once I get a final draft edited and hammered out, I’ll be posting it on Amazon. I am challenging myself to get something out there by the first half of 2015.
At this point I am about thirty five hundred words behind, so every bit counts. The good news is that that is only about two days worth of writing that I missed so far this month. The not so good news is that I have to catch up on it before the end of the month. I am going to reach my goal of fifty thousand words, that is for sure. This post is adding about six hundred words to my word count. 🙂