NaNoWriMo or Bust!

Posted: October 3, 2009

I have recently signed up for the National Novel Writing Month Challenge! (NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo is an annual, month-long challenge that takes place during the month of November. The idea is to write a 50,000 word long novel in exactly one month.

There are no style restrictions, and editing is actually discouraged. The goal is to get out and write, to just splurge everything down on the paper and get an actual novel completed, instead of endlessly thinking about the plot, or getting caught in the tinkering trap of endlessly tweaking and rewriting things.

There’s no contest, and no prize for best novel. The only prize is to have a complete 50,000 word piece of writing that you’ve created.

I’ve been neglecting my writing lately. Instead anything I create is more likely to be crafted in PHP or C# than the English language. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy grokking a tricky piece of code, but there’s a more creative side to myself that I’ve always enjoyed exploring, and it hasn’t been getting much play lately. It will feel good to get back to actual writing again.  I feel like the NaNoWriMo challenge is exactly the sort of event I need to get started again.

So that leaves me with a little more than one month to get ready.  I need set up a space to write, find some typing paper (yes I’m using a typewriter), and figure out what to write.  Anyone have any suggestions?