What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

For those of you who don’t know, this November I’ll be participating in National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). Basically, in a month, I have to write a 50,000-word novel (thats like 175 pages and about the length of The Great Gatsby) and hone my edit-obsessed mind into thinking only of output and not of quality. The whole point of participating is not to end up with a perfectly written novel but more to create something totally crappy, which I’ll be able to trudge through after November to find the diamonds in the rough. And it’s not like I’ll be doing this all alone; people all over the world participate in NaNo every year and create a real community of writers who support each other.

I haven’t posted up an entry about NaNoWriMo before now since I was unsure whether or not I’d still be interested in doing it once November comes around. HOWEVERRR, it’s the end of September with only a bit more than a month left to go before NaNo, and my fingers are already itching to pound out the novel in my head. Since August when I first heard about NaNo, I’ve switched story ideas a few times, but I think I’ve come across a premise that have actually stuck, and that I think I’ll enjoy writing. It’s a bizarre feeling, knowing that I’m going to write this NaNovel for my own benefit more than anybody else’s. I’m the sort of writer who compares her own writing to those of other, more venerable authors, which is probably the reason why I’ve never actually finished something I’m working on. I always cop out towards the middle, because I would have already butchered what I have of my story to death and realize it’s a piece of cow dung. So I guess doing NaNo (where the backspace key is taboo to use) will be one heck of an experience that I hope will turn me into a better writer. A more mature writer who writes without being plagued by insecurities, because that has definitely gotten me nowhere.

Anyway, throughout the month of November, I’ll be posting up my NaNoWriMo progress on this blog perhaps twice a week or so. Not only do I want you guys to feel as if you’re doing the journey with me, but I also want to see how neurotic I’ll get during November, so that I can look back on it and laugh my butt off. There will be times when I’ll surely want to quit and throw my manuscript file into the virtual garbage can, so I’m asking for your support and encouragement when it does feel like I’m about to nip the thing in the bud. I mean, it’s all nice and good that strangers on the NaNoWriMo forum will be there to support me, but I think knowing that people I actually know–friends and family who can actually smack me upside the head if I don’t reach my 50,000-word goal by the end of November–will only spur me to keep on writing even when I hit a bump in the road.

Now if some of you are interested in doing NaNoWriMo with me this year, come join me and hop on the loony writers bandwagon!!! I think it’s definitely less daunting to go through the process with someone you already know and who will sympathize with you on your 2 a.m. frenzied caffeine vigils during that last stretch before the deadline. Or you know, if you’re a complete stranger who’ve just stumbled across my blog, then by all means let me know how you’re doing, and we’ll totally keep track of each other on NaNoWriMo’s forum or through each other’s blogs!

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that NaNoWriMo is not supposed to be a horribly serious writing endeavor for very serious writers. I mean, it’s darn near impossible to come up with a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in a month, so this is more just for fun than anything else. You’re not supposed to kill yourself over it or anything. ( O_O!! ) If anything, I view NaNo as the first step in the really extensive novel-making process. But the first really important thing is to at least get that novel in your head down on paper (or on Microsoft Word), because without something to work with, how can a writer expect to reach that publishing stage? It’s like an artist chipping away at a piece of marble to create a beautiful statue; if you don’t have the marble, how are you going to make a work of art out of it?

End pedantic rant.

ANYWAYYY, REMEMBER, GUYS!! PLEASE HELP KEEP ME ACCOUNTABLE! Much appreciated.<3