Saturday, November 1, 2008

NaNoWriMo, anyone?


It's here! I'm here! The new book has begun! Insanity reigns!

Perhaps I should review, since my last post on this topic was written a month ago.

This is the tenth year of a wacky little competition called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The object is to write 50,000 words of new fiction during the month of November. Must be new, must be written during these 30 days. The writing can continue beyond this month, but the goal is to put down at least 50,000 words during this time period. It's insane.

I would include a link so you could check out the NaNo website, but things are barely crawling along over there as more than 100,000 writers try to access their NaNo mail and update their word counts. I'll add the link later. It's insane.

Today, after watching my nephew's crazy-good football game, I sat down for two writing sessions and whipped out more than 3500 words. Yeah for me! It's insane, but I'm gonna do it.

I've got a special little warning device that I have tested today. When I'm writing, I plan to wear a lovely orange nylon scarf. This is supposed to serve as a reminder to myself that I'm in a NaNo session, and a warning to others that I should be approached with caution because I'm in a NaNo writing session. Psychological studies have, I'm sure, verified the impact of an article of clothing used as a signal for the performance of special duties. Why do you think scuba divers wear face masks? To remind them to breathe from their air tanks, of course. Construction workers wear tool belts to help them remember to aim for the nails, not their fingers. Horses wear saddles in order to stay on all fours, for the safety of their riders. And this writer will don a scarf from her grandmother, so that the whole world will know not to break her train of thought in the midst of this ever so important endeavor. It is a scarf of power. And loudness. I'll try to post a photo tomorrow.

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