Thumper Thinks Out Loud

Last year I did not Nano. I wanted to, but we were smack dab in the middle of moving and I had neither the time nor the energy to st down and mentally barf out 2000 words a day. I had an idea for what I thought would be a good story, but decided I would just work on it over the following months instead of trying to cram it all into 30 days.

That idea is still banging around in my head. I've got copious notes, a rough outline, and idea of where I want to go with it, but I haven't gotten around to the actual writing of it.

Wednesday (Happy Birthday to my Mommy that day!) is Day One of the 2006 NaNoWriMo competition.

I signed up for it this year; it's time for The Story to get out of my head and onto paper. Ok, into the computer. Virtual paper. I have no illusions about writing The Great American Novel in 30 days, but I'm confident I can get a really good rough draft in one month.

Fifty thousand words sounds like a lot, but it's not.

It's 1,667 words a day.

A couple hours, if you sit down and actually write without allowing your brain to begin pondering the deeper meanings of life, such as "Do fried Snickers Bars really taste good?" and "Whose idea was it to fund a study on whether or not eating boogers boosts one's immune system?"

Somewhere around November 7th, there will be a mass of frustrated writers who will sit back, mutter a string of expletives, toss something across the room, and declare that they are quitting. It's too hard. Too many words per day. What they're writing sucks.

That's ok. 50,000 words in one month probably does bear a certain amount of suckage, but that doesn't matter. Go ahead and keep writing, and revel in your massive suckitude. It doesn't have to be good. It just has to be.

You can go back later and edit.

You can go back later and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite.

But don't quit. If that manuscript doesn't have 50,000 words at the end of the month, oh well. At least you'll have written something, and you can keep working on it.

Join me in Potential Literary Suckitude.

It'll be fun!