It's here again. I believe it was this time last year that Rob blew my mind with the prospect of writing a 50,000 work novel in the month of November (I mean right before Christmas??!! - as if there's any better time).
We both punked out and it's been on the back burner all year, until the topic came up again last weekend.
So, should I write a novel in November or not? I know the obvious answer: Of course you should! Why not? Which is what made me originally think, "Yea, I should. Why not?"
But what keeps me from signing up?
I don't have a laptop. No, it's not a necessity. I'd prefer to write by hand, but my typing has gotten so fast that it's unrealistic to even consider it. Computers at both home and work will allow me to spend any time I would spend on the project anyway, well, working on the project. If I whined enough, there's probably someone in my life who would loan me a laptop for one month anyway.
Whatever I write, it's going to be crap. I don't even have any ideas developed enough for anything this long. Besides, 5.83 pages a day pretty much guarantees it's going to be crap. Of course in my procrastinating college days, any well-marked papers I wrote were completed in a similar time crunch.
This will almost certainly cut into my peanut butter eating TV time. OK, tivo.
The most intimidating possibility for me is that about 20 pages in, I'll completely lose interest, and face either giving up, which is not in my nature, or waste the rest of the month just completing the assignment, essentially going through the motions, which is more like me - unable to cut my losses on any investment.
The reasons to do it are obvious: Practice, using a skill that has been gone essentially unused for years; fun, a project; catharsis, how great to unleash thoughts that no one ever has to read.
Will I do it? I still don't know. Did I write a blog about this last year at this time. Now, that I think about it, I think I actually did. Hmm, doesn't bode well for NANOWRIMO.
