nanowrimo

As if I don’t have enough to do with my time I’ve decided to sign up for the National Novel Writing month (aka nanowrimo). The aim is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in the month of november. As my friend YoJimbo says the way to write a novel is to sit down with a blank document, start at the beginning and keep writing, or they say on the site

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As luck would have it, I was struck by a super shroom-powered inspiration for a novel at last month’s PRoD and tried to flesh out the idea a little this weekend. I didn’t get too far and it was already looking like yet another one of those projects where I’ve started but I’ll never finish. But approaching it this way, I will be able to short circuit the strong self-critical filter I’d normally apply to anything I do and hopefully end up with something rather than nothing.

And, of course, this decision is in no way influenced by my new found habits and hero-worship of Hunter S. Thompson. Squash that thought, right now!

About caspar

Caspar is just one monkey among billions. Battering his keyboard without expectations even of peanuts, let alone of aping the Immortal Bard. By day he is an infantologist at Birkbeck Babylab, by night he runs BabyLaughter.net
This entry was posted in good, words. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to nanowrimo

  1. tom says:

    In celebration of your newly enabled commenting, and your november writing resolution, a quote (from Kingsley Amis)
    – “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your trousers to the seat of your chair”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *