Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A NOVEL IN NOVEMBER?

I've been thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month happens every November. The "rules" are straightforward: participants write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.

I tried it once. 

I was in grad school and had no business taking on another project. Those were years I did way too many things, none of them particularly well. 

I don't know how I thought writing a novel would benefit me. 

You see, I've never so much as written a story more than, oh, five pages long. And that story was a tremendous struggle. 

I'm not a writer interested in plot-driven narratives. I haven't read many novels lately. I don't have a character whose story I need to tell. The word "narrative" gives me the heebie-jeebies. 

Why, then, would I even consider a second NaNoWriMo attempt?

Maybe because I just want to have a 200 page manuscript in a drawer. I can refer to those pages as "my novel." 

If I could be content with a paperweight made of 200 sheets of paper, I could write a novel. However, I still write like a poet. I obsess over every syllable. Writing is a slow go for me. 

I did, however, think of some ideas last night. 

Mythology. Caravaggio paintings. Ovid. A novel in three sections. 

That's all I've got. But it's a start. 

 
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