No, I’m not channeling Mork from Ork but want to share with you that November is National Novel Writing Month. It’s a very cool idea that began in 1999 when Chris Baty and 20 others in the San Francisco area decided they were going to write a 175 page novel in one month. Last year they had more than 120,000 participants from all over the world!!
The goal is to start writing November 1 and complete 50,000 words by November 30. Why? How could something written so quickly possibly be any good? Well, most of them probably aren’t the great American novel, but that’s not the point. The idea is to motivate people to do something they’ve been wanting to do but can never find the time, or can’t get past the first chapter, paragraph, sentence.
You may end up with nothing but dreck but you can truly claim to be a novelist! Or you may end up with something that can be reworked into a best-selling novel just like one participant, Sara Gruen – maybe you’ve heard of the book Water for Elephants?
I’m no aspiring novelist, but I am thinking of reworking the concept behind NaNoWriMo into something that will help me tackle things that keep getting put off. My first attempt will be OrMyBeWk: Organize My Bedroom Week. And I’m going to start tomorrow…or maybe Monday…well, I’ll let you know how it goes.
—Julie
Read it or Weep 