National Novel Writing Month

You may not be aware of this, but every year, come November 1, an alarmingly large number of people across the world commit themselves to writing an entire novel by the end of the month, for no good reason whatsoever.

This might not be entirely true - there are reasons. It's a challenge, obviously. For those of us who scribble regularly and suffer from writer's block at times, it pushes us to learn the habit of writing no matter what the circumstances. And it's a lot of fun to be involved in the creation of something like a novel. Not to mention that since so many people do particpate, there's a vibrant and supportive online community, as well as active writing groups who meet in person throughout the year.

But NaNoWriMo, which is essentially a competition to write 50,000 words of fiction within a month's time, is still a bit of a strange endeavor. I don't know exactly what attracts its participants year after year after year, but even after two failed attempts in 2001 and 2002, and not even any attemtps after that, I know I still thought about it every November.

The idea of being a "writer," with a novel and everything, is an alluring one. I've been a writer in some form or another since I was nine years old. For a long period of time it was my sole aim in life. But it takes a lot of discipline to keep it up. The extent of my material reward for years and years of doing it has been one short story published in a very small publication for no pay, and that's it. Of course the personal reward can make up the difference, but it certainly doesn't make a livelihood. And if you devote yourself to making a livelihood, you will struggle to find enough time and energy to write. I finally decided that I needed to live more before I could write more, at least in the way I wanted to, and so I gave up writing full-time to go back to school and, well, live. I continue to keep a freeform journal - which, being a common practice of hundreds of disgruntled teenage girls as well, probably doesn't do a lot to further my cause as a real, honest-to-goodness writer.

But last week I got a great idea for a novel, and, well, November's just around the corner. Why not try again.

If I make it to the finish line, I intend to polish up my opus and make it available for free download as an ebook. If you're interested in being a beta reader/editor of the first draft, leave me a comment or send an email.

[image credit: taliesin @ morguefile.com]

Technorati tags: National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, writing