Hong Kong (11/5): NaNoWriMo

Yesterday afternoon I was talking with Cynda online and she mentioned the NaNoWriMo was this month.  The what?  It turns out it is National Novel Writing Month.  The gist of it is, you sign up and try to write a 50,000 word novel in the course of the month of November. 

I thought it sounded interesting so I checked out the NaNoWriMo websiteand took a look.  Here is the excerpt from their website's "about" page: (emphasis provided by me)

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.

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.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

Now, it was already the 5th of November.  By a quick calculation that means I would have to write an average of 2,000 words a day for 25 days.  But then, a lot of my blogs are around 1500 words already so it's not such a stretch. 

After I finished work for the day I started writing.  I had outlined an idea for a story during lunch and had a general idea what the novel would be about.  It was just a matter of starting.

two and a half hours later I had finished over 3,000 words.  Not too shabby for my first time out.

Now, I figure that I'm generally pretty good at starting things, but I've not always been so strong at reaching the finish line.  And that's where you can come in.  I'd like those of you who are interested in reading my (incredibly rough, tattered and poorly written) story to let me know, either via PM or through e-mail if you would like to receive my story updates.  If so, I will send you a new section whenever I finish it up.

I figure, if I have a group of people that are relying on me to get them the story, it will force me to get it done.  Otherwise I'm just writing for myself and who knows how long something like that would last.

So, here is the deal.  If you want to read my story you have to agree to the following:

1. This is a very rough first draft of a story.  Parts of it might not make sense or have huge logic holes.  And that's fine.  Like they said, it's all about output and quantity of words.  So, you agree not to send back your critiques about the story.  This isn't a discussion, it's a production.  There are going to be grammar and spelling mistakes aplenty.  I don't edit what I write -- it's completely stream-of-consciousness writing, so don't expect Tolstoy.  In fact, have no expectations whatsoever.

2. You won't share the story with anyone else.  You can mention it to someone if an idea catches your fancy, but don't send the file to someone.  If they want to read it they can just send me a message and I'll add them to the mailing list.

And that's pretty much it: keep an open mind and don't spread it like a virus.  Not too hard, right?  If you're interested in reading my story, then send me the following information:

1. Your name (your real one, silly)

2. Your e-mail address

Whenever I have a new part ready, I'll send it out. 

And so begins the next chapter .... (pun intented ... )