Every year around the end of October the Blogworld and my Facebook fills up with posts about people getting themselves motived and excited to tackle National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept you can visit the official website here. Basically it's an online community of people around the world who set out to write a novel (50,000 words) during the month of November.
I first heard about NaNoWriMo way back in high school when my life revolved around theatre, I took acting classes for a couple years but what I really loved was playwriting class and poetry club. I know what you're thinking... And yes, I was indeed kind of geeky and lame in high school and I remain kind of geeky and lame in my young adult life. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Anyway we talked about the challenge every year and I remember some of the older (aka young adults/university aged folks) people participating. I never attempted it back then because of course I was busy writing papers about dystopian societies, child labour and trying to memorize French verbs. I figured it was something I'd have time for in university. HA.
During university I was busy writing papers about deviant leisure, risk management strategies and memorizing a plethora of anatomy and physiology terms. I assumed I'd have time for NaNoWriMo when I was "grown up". Hahaha.
Since I finished university I've worked at wide variety of contract/seasonal/term jobs and can probably count on one hand the number of times I've picked up a pen to do any creative writing. High school me would be so sad/shocked to hear this tidbit of information but it's the truth. I've just been busy with other things and haven't made time. That brings me to present day, I've found myself in another "in between contracts" season of life which seems to have lined up perfectly with NaNoWriMo 2015. Which leads me to the question at hand; to NaNoWriMo or Not to NaNoWriMo?
On the one hand I've had NaNoWriMo on my bucket list since before I really knew what a bucket list was. I do love writing and in theory I do have time to commit to it and I really do love writing! Between the ages of 9-17 I told people I was going to be a writer when I grew up, I was going to study journalism in university and spend my days writing. Then I found out I could (in theory) work at camp for the rest of my life and I determined that would be a more stable job (I'm legitimately laughing out loud right now) and moved on from my author aspirations. So winning NaNoWriMo would feel like a big accomplishment and I could check something off a list.
On the other hand...words, writing, imagination, AH! Where do I start? Whats the main character's name? And their favourite colour? And where do I start!?
Clearly, both solid arguments.
Today is November 2nd, which means I'm already behind a day (or two?) but I still haven't made a decision. Are you setting out to write a novel this November?
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