NaNoWriMo

(Or, to give it it’s full name, National Novel Writing Month.)

I hadn’t quite forgotten that November is NaNoWriMo.  The aim is to write a novel (or, at least 50,000 words) during November.  I want to wish everyone entering good luck, and I hope you all succeed.

I have full respect for anyone taking up the challenge.

I’m not giving it a go, partly because I don’t have a well enough defined project to work on. 

My other reason for not being involved is that for me, one of the pleasures of writing is the variety of tasks involved.  Off the top of my head I can think of:

• Planning;
• Drafting;
• Proof reading;
• Critiquing;
• Reading;
• Marketing;
• Networking;
• Admin (keeping my C drive up to date!);
• Submitting;
• research.

So, that’s a lot of things for the average writer to do.  Much as I enjoy the craft, I think concentrating on one aspect for a month would be repetitive and I’d fear I’d fall by the wayside.  So, that’s why I respect everyone making the effort.

However...

I am seriously thinking of giving it a go next year.  One of the downsides of writing novels is that I have more ideas than I have time to do anything about them.  If I can get the detailed planning done beforehand, it might be the impetus I need to work on something that might not otherwise see the light of day.

The main downside will be the copious redrafting of what is likely to be a very poor first draft!