My NaNoWriMo 2006 Novel : Basura CanyonHave you heard of National Novel Writing Month [NaNoWriMo]? It's this kind of amazing month long event during which you commit to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.
Sound crazy?
You may be right. It may be crazy. But it just may be the lunatic within yourself you're looking for. (Apologies to Billy Joel.)
I did NaNoWriMo in 2006. I wrote 57,000 words in 30 days. It was very empowering.
What'd it do for me? It gave me a half-baked first draft in a vein that's unusual for me. I've worked on revising it, off and on, since then.
My fantasies of writing and rewriting and selling a book a year due to NaNoWriMo were the really crazy part. Yeah, I'm one of those who's likely to build castles with the most flimsy of materials.
The best thing NaNoWriMo did for me was encourage me to put my writing first. Literally. It only took a few days to realize that my normal writing habits weren't going to garner the necessary average of something like 1,750 words a day.
That's when I started getting up earlier, driving to an all-night diner near where I work, and writing before going to my office.
Man, what a good choice that was. Two years later, I'm still an early-morning diner denizon. I do this thing for myself and my writing before I do anything for anyone else.
And some one brings me coffee! And they notice if I don't show up.
I'd encourage you to check it out and to make the one month commitment. See what good habits you can establish in a month. If you're a bit of a perfectionist, going for quantity over quality might actually help you break free of your internal editor.
Even though there's a great online community to tap into at www.nanowrimo.org , let me know how it's going.
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