I AM SO SORRY FOR BEING A HORRIBLE
BLOGGER!
I have no excuse for the summer months
or September or October.
I have a REALLY good excuse for not
blogging in November, though!
Wanna know what it is?
….
...I'm going to tell you...
National Novel Writing Month (Usually
shortened to NaNoWriMo)
Everybody always asks me what it is. So
When they do next time, instead of explaining myself, I can just give
them the web address and they can read this.
NaNoWriMo is the month in which you
attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
Sound easy?
It's REALLY not.
Days 1-5 are usually spent in
writer's-block-free bliss. Tra-la-la, everything's going well and
then-
SMACK
Days 6-12: Pound your head on the keyboard because whatever comes up
on the screen has GOT to be better than anything that may pop into
your head. You feel like maybe getting your little brothers or a
monkey to type because YOU ARE STUCK. Your story is dead, you're
writing Mary Sues and you HAVE to get in your 1,667 word count in for
the day so you can go and deal with pre-holiday food shopping with
your mother/aunt/grandmother/ etc.
13-21: Your story line is ending, you cannot
drag this on without compromising the integrity of your story. But
wait? What was that? A laundromat run by ghosts? I think I'll use that! (Purely fictional, I chose a homeless shelter run by a
cantankerous old Irish witch and her two mischievous sons instead of
the laundromat, but whatever works)
HALLELUJAH! It works! You'll live on
to write the rest!
And by day 23, I was done. (Thank
God!)
*Sidenote* My final days on the
previous years were usually spent writing obscenely long epilogues
and prologues. I just got to that a bit quicker this year...
This is my third year doing this
program. I am by no means a seasoned veteran (Nano has been going on
since the nineties), and usually, I STILL have no clue what I'm
doing.
But it's simple. You write. And
believe me, it's probably gonna be crappy, but it's ok.
It's a first draft, and you did
it. You got your story out onto paper. Go you! Now you have pride and
bragging rights (And some pretty awesome web badges)
Whoever is reading this and has ever
done NaNoWriMo, BOOYAH! I'll see you next year!
And if anybody is reading this who
has a story stuck in their noggin, get it down!
You won't regret it. Even if it's not NaNoWrimo, go write a page a
day. DO IT NOW *in a poor Arnold Schwarzenegger voice*
Yes, I just quoted Predator. Nerd
girl, over here! *waves hands maniacally*
So yeah, now I have to stop typing
and go back to nursing my poor carpal nerves.
DFTBA!
Gail
