Nano-Nano!

Ok, so for once, the inspiration from my title is a little more cryptic than a line from an 80’s song. And no, I am not getting ready to flog you over the head with some nostalgic piece about Mork and Mindy. Although, that would be oddly entertaining to me. Don’t ask me why - I really don’t know.

Saturday begins the annual official National Novel Writers Month competition, or NaNoWriMo for short. Participants are tasked with writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That breaks down to about 1,667 words per day. No one in their right mind would participate in this competition - especially if they have anything else they need to do with their life. Good thing I am not in my right mind, or I might really be stressing about having signed up!

My participation decision started and ended about a month ago. I mentioned this elsewhere, but in case you were hammered and forgot, I quit drinking beer about four weeks ago. Needing something else to do with all of this new-found time on my hands (I drank a LOT of beer), I popped into the local Borders and was checking around for books that might inspire me to write. I had always wanted to write a book. Nothing too heavy - just some good fictional fluff. I really enjoy mysteries and thrillers, and always envisioned myself as someone who would thrive in an occupation where I was more or less able to make things up as I went along. I had been doing it in the “real world” for years anyway, so what’s the difference?

Anyway, long story longer:

As I was looking over the myriad of writing books, one in particular caught my eye. It was called, No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. I was thinking as I read the cover, “that sounds about right!” I had no idea what I wanted to write, what kinds of characters would be in it, or why anyone else would give a crap. It is sort of like how I feel about this blog, but that’s a story for another day.

As I began to read the introduction from this hilarious book, I learned the history of NaNoWriMo and all about the contest. You are not judged on how well you write, how cool your characters are or even how few holes there are in your plot. It is understood you are going to have campy dialog, bad puns, and grammatical errors galore. All you have to do is finish. The idea is that if you can churn out 50,000 words in 30 days for a rough draft of a book, you have really done something that most people would never be able to do.

Additionally, it has been the experience of those that have participated that somewhere around the third week, you have put enough text on the page that the thing more or less begins to write itself. Your imagination takes over, and your characters start telling you what they will be doing next. Sounds like either a lot of fun, if not a little disturbing. In either case, I’m down!

So, I immediately decided that I was going to give it a shot. I can certainly throw down a lot of words quickly. As I am writing this, I am watching the little word counter go up. 552, 553, 554…. Sweet - almost a third of the way through with today’s quota and it hasn’t even been 10 minutes since I started this entry. My speed probably explains a lot about the content of my posts now. It’s obvious that the fingers are doing the talking here, because there is no way that any kind of filter or editor has the time to get in the way!

Actually, that is something that is supposed to be critical to success in the NaNoWriMo journey; you have to be able to turn off that pesky internal editor we all seem to have. I know he bugs the Hell out of me whenever I am designing a website or trying to code an app. Lately, in preparation for the contest, I have been telling him to stuff it more and more. Just today I was able to power out three new product logos for a new line of service offerings for my consulting company. There is NO WAY I would have been able to do that before I shit-canned Mr. KnowItAllEditorWhoConstantlyNitpicksEverythingIDo. Pardon my French. And while we are on the subject, what’s with those Frenchies cussin’ all the time? Anyway, I digress.

752, 753, 754…

If only my blogging would count towards my daily quota of words for my book. C’est la vie. So, starting tomorrow, you all have the right to ask, “how’s the book coming,” as well as, “did you hit your quota today?” I will actually post a word count widget on this blog as soon as their wheel-running hamsters get on the stick and generate enough electricity to fire up the server that supposedly is hosting the API that allows you to get such data.

To make matters even more interesting, my wife, Miz Fancy Pants, is also joining in on the writing fun. Of course she wrote her blog entry about it a few days ago, throwing down the gauntlet for our imminent word war. I hope she is ready, because I am going to bring a load of literary pain down on her… Then again, anyone who has read my blog would suggest that I bring a load of literary pain down on everyone else, so why should she be special?

Well, I am off to do many finger stretches and also to load up my fridge with delicious Diet Coke. Until we meet again, wish me luck!

C

PS - this entry is 993 words long. I still would have to write another 700 words to hit today’s quota. What was I thinking again? Perhaps I was still drunk from the night before…

Tags: Carrie, drinking, fiction, nanowrimo, writing, you're a looney