National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.Why am I doing this? I have an idea for a novel that I'd like to get started on. As mentioned in the description, this process forces you to focus on creating content and ignore editing and other fine tuning aspects of the writing process that can be daunting and ultimately crippling. So the goal is to wake up on December 1st with a big, misshapen lump of words that needs a ton of tweaking, work that can be done at a more orderly pace. The point is to hurry up and get that lump of words and then figure out what to do with it.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking 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.
In the meantime, I have to "work" my regular "job" as well as keep up my obligation as contributing editor with SB Nation Tampa Bay, not to mention all the day-to-day madness that occurs as part of "life". Something's gotta give: this blog. Posting here is liable to be less frequent and certainly not as lengthy (stop applauding, please...at least sit down). Having to crank out 1,667 words a day for NaNoWriMo doesn't leave a lot left over for the ol' Trickle. Sorry.
But please don't stop visiting; I am not shutting down!! There will still be content here, as much as I can produce and as often as possible...and there might even be a surprise or two.
So Happy NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck and I'll see you real soon!
PS: If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, please feel free to connect with me via the web site. I'm Clark_Brooks there.
That's so cool! Good luck with the novel. You're gonna do great!
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