NaNoWriMo - Why I'm not participating.
This year was the first time I heard of NaNoWriMo. Alright, I admit, I was pretty out of it before I started freelancing. You can't blame me! I was pursuing a bachelor's degree! Having the time of your life in college is some serious hard work, you know?
I heard about NaNoWriMo at the Muse Conference where every one was talking about it and a lot of wonderful people kept trying to get me to sign up. I thought long and hard about it. I really want to sign up. But I haven't. I'm going to sit this year out.
Why? Because I've never written a short story let alone attempt a 50,000 word novel! See how huge that number is? But If I'd known how to write fiction, I would have signed up in a jiffy. The other reason I'm not even considering signing up is that November will be filled with a lot of travelling this year. Okay so that's as lame an excuse as the first one.
Here it is, the real reason: I am petrified. I haven't had the time to process such a huge challenge. I'm not confident in my abilities to write fiction and I hate not reaching the finish line which means that if I don't complete the 50,000 word I'd be berating myself endlessly and knowing me would steer even further from fictional writing.
So, next year I'll be signing up. I'll have worked on a story and plot, outlined my chapters, learned how to write dialogues that move the story forward, and envisioned a start, middle and end. Sound like a lot of work? Hey I know writers who are all geared up for the challenge! They have their pencils sharpened or fingers poised over their keyboards already in anticipation!
Next year I'm going to be one of them.
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October 29, 2008 at 10:23 AM
I don't blame you, I didn't sign up either, mostly because the longest story I ever wrote was about 1,400 words and it was all one sentence. Hmm, don't know if that qualifies as a short story, but it did get published in a local magazine in Louisiana and won my school $1,000 to put towards their english program. I guess they felt compelled because obvioulsy students there didn't know propper sentence structure. Go figure.
October 30, 2008 at 2:36 AM
Hehe, I've never ever written a story so you're still better off than me. And hey! You won your school $1000 and you got published too! That's wayyy cool!
For whatever reasons, you got published. That's all that counts.
Coming a few years late but congratulations :D
October 30, 2008 at 1:09 PM
@Samar: It seemed more like an epic, just went on and on making no sense what so ever until it abruptly ended. Hey, that is a pretty darn good definition of an epic. Anyway, thanks ;)
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