To Nano or Not To Nano

To Nano or Not To Nano . . .

November is National Novel Writing Month. In honor of this special occasion an organization named NaNoWriMo (for obvious reasons) promotes writing an adult length novel (50,000 words) in the thirty fleeting days of November. The idea is to pump out a whole novel lickety split and worry about editing later. Impossible you say! Well, it was for me last year. I accomplished a measly 15,000 words during Turkey month 2009.

It was my first attempt. I started with an idea and four characters, but no real outline. By November 30th I was halfway through a middle grade novel, typically about 30,000 words. I haven’t touched it since.

Now I’m in a quandary about whether to participate this year or not.

Here are my excuses of why not to do it:

1.) I’m busy.

2.) I’ll be out of town visiting family for a week this month. I don’t have a lap top so it might get a little difficult to write on the road.

3.) I didn’t finish last years’ novel so I don’t want to start a third, even though I do have a great idea.

Here are my reasons why I should probably do it:

1.) If I focus on word count and fudge on the rule to start a new novel, it’d be a nice opportunity to finish the novel I started last November.

2.) I need a break from editing my first novel. I’m sick of picking at it and would like to write something from scratch again. The NaNoWriMo emphasis is on quantity and not quality. I’m ready to focus on a feeling of accomplishment from word count alone without having to worry about perfection.

3.) I already signed up.

All right then, it’s decided. I’m going to give it another try. I mean come on, I couldn’t do any worse than 15,000 words. At least I hope not.

I’m going to pull out those chapters from last year tonight and re-read them so I’ll be ready to pick up where I left off on November 1st.

Check out NaNoWriMo for yourself, but don’t tell them my goal is to write the second half of a novel! (My nano cheating just may be my mother’s fault, she’s always insisted I finish what I start.) Next year I’ll start from scratch again. I promise.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Benjamin Franklin