Get Ready to Rumble (day 1/30)
Greetings, people. Can you believe it's November already? I can't.
I have been sorely remiss here on the blog lately, but no more. In fact, the blog is about to go from feast to famine - rather, from famine to feast, as I am joining the NaNoWriMo bandwagon train and committing to writing every day for the next 30 days.
As of today, November 1, the train has left the station.
(source: www.grassrootsfitness.ie)
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a month-long writing extravaganza whereby writers all over the world attempt to write a 50,000 novel in the 30 days of November. This means an average of 1666 words per day, which is a lot when you count the million and one distractions called LIFE.
Like most things that sound impossible, it CAN be done. It can even lead to published work. Here's a list of novels that started off during NaNoWriMo. Here's another list. And here's a list of novels that are around 50,000 words (Fahrenheit 451 among them!).
All that to say... (surprise!) I will not be writing a novel. But I am committing to writing every single day for the next 30 days.
I will write on the blog. I will write creatively. But I will write. Where I am in 30 days is still TBD. I want to finish my memoir, but I'm not setting that as the only goal. Most importantly, I'm going to write EVERY DAY.
If it sounds weird that I keep repeating that, it's because I am fairly certain that writing every day will be extremely difficult.
As you can see from the month+ since my last post, I am an inconsistent blogger. "Write a blog post" is always at the top of my To Do list. Yet it's the first thing that I ignore when I get busy with work and life. This past month I was hustling for work, renovating my apartment, updating my website (check it out!), traveling to the city... blah blah blah. This coming month I'll be doing more of the same, PLUS dealing with a little holiday called Thanksgiving where (like many Americans) I'll be driving many hours to eat an enormous sleep-inducing meal with family.
I know I don't have to blog. But honestly, when I don't blog for a long period of time, I really feel it. Which is to say, when I don't write for a long period of time, I don't feel like myself (writing for work doesn't count).
So, I'm doing this crazy thing called NaNoWriMo... and these are my personal goals:
Write every day. This is the greatest challenge for me.
Write faster. I'm a terribly slow writer, which hurts me financially and professionally. If I can learn how to write a story in fewer hours, I will make more money per hour and be able to write more stories. My brother is a professional journalist and writes up to three stories a day!
Write more freely. Part of the reason why I'm a slow writer is my tendency to second guess and edit as I go.
Finish a writing project. Another huge challenge.
And that's it. (haha)
I'm feeling nervous, excited, determined and proud. I CAN do this. I WILL DO THIS.
To all my fellow writers on this crazy train, WE CAN DO THIS!!
Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!
Incidentally, this is how Ruby feels about NaNoWriMo (and most things).
