Saturday, October 20, 2007

National Novel Writing Month

Last night me and Leah went to the bookstore. I forget how we ended up there, but we ended up spending several hours sitting and reading. Leah checked out comedian (and genius) Stephen Colbert's new book. As she sat there, giggling, I read a large swath of the Warren Zevon bio I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD. It was a good (but strange) read. I saw a new bio of Hunter S. Thompson that looked interesting...

ANYWAY!

Somehow, on our way out of the store I found this book of random facts--while Leah was messing around with a puppy calendar...and inside I turned to a section all about literature. One of the "random" facts was that November is National Novel Writing Month.

I remember last year, this really annoying chick in one of my English classes was bragging about doing it. I remember thinking it was pretty lame...what a difference a year makes! Like most people, I need two things to do anything:

1. A deadline

and

2. A swift kick in the arse to get me jump started.

I'm worried that when I get out of school I'm going to "submit" to the workweek and give up on writing. I could see that happening (easily). Therefore, I'm going to write at least one novel before I graduate. From November 1 to 30 you have to write 50,000 words to "win." The contest was set up by this guy in Oregon, you can read more about it on the official website. The goal is quantity, not quality...it's not about getting it perfect or editing...but just getting it out. I think this is what I need.

I need a writing buddy, someone to share this experience with me...and to help keep me on track. I emailed everyone I know about this...I doubt I'll get any takers--but if you're interested let me know!

This should be interesting.

3 comments:

Jason said...

If anyone decides to go and do this...and you set up a profile (which is free) on the website add me as a friend. Can you guess what my handle is?

Limemonkeyx3

Anonymous said...

Jason--I'm excited that you are doing this. Once before I had a creative writing student attempt it while she was in my class and she managed to bang out the novel she'd only talked about writing up until then! It works!

Jason said...

I'm really excited about this!!! I hope I can actually do it...when Leah was in Alaska I started working on something that I think I'm going to re-work into a longer piece.

By the way, I got an email from Spencer...he told me he has a novel that is being considered for publication (I can't remember the name of the press). Isn't that amazing! I'm so happy for him (and jealous as hell).

Anyway, wish me luck.