NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org), and I have been thinking seriously about participating. Basically, the idea is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I've thought about participating before, but not seriously. This year, though, I thought - "Hey maybe that would be the push I need. Besides it's only a month!" It'd be worth it just for the ability to print business cards that say: Benjamin Wilkins - Novelist. Assuming one would stretch the project out throughout the month and get some writing in everyday (which is a pretty big assumption) it would come out to under 2,000 words a day - just under 6 pages. That'd be hard, but since the whole point is to just get words on the page (rather than say, good or even coherent words) it doesn't seem too bad.

But after some consideration, I think it would unwise. I really like the idea of getting sponsors to not only contribute to a worthy cause but to add that extra guilty umph to actually finishing. And I'd make myself do it if I thought that there was any way that I could succeed. Sometimes it's good to reach a little. Usually it's good to reach a little. But it's also important not to set impossible goals that you can never meet. School and work eat up my time, and I can't quit those. So what would suffer would be whatever downtime I have - and therefore my sanity - and likely time spent with J and that just wouldn't be wise if I want to keep all ten of my toes (she really doesn't like my toes).

Then again, I always used to talk about how I wanted to be in a job, just for a while, that was so important that it didn't have hours. It was all hours. I wanted to be Josh on the West Wing - killing myself because it was worth killing myself. Is this worth a little sanity? A good novel would be. But I'm not sure that's what would come out, even assuming I got anything out at all. I'm not really a novelist either (see last post). Maybe I could try to put together a graphic novel? Just to finish anything extra - anything that I want to work on, beyond my scholastic writing. That would be a worthy goal.

Ok, so I'll try that. A graphic novella. I think I'll tackle something that's been rattling around in my brain for a while...a fantasy that isn't really a fantasy. It'd be set in an imaginary city roughly during the late renaissance. Or a period of imaginary history in this imaginary world that is similar. And it would be about duels. And war. And love. And death. So, y'know - the good stuff.

More later, if I make any progress. If not, we won't be speaking about it again.

-George