Go, see Ann at Lake E: NaNoWriMo
See me at Wild Turtle Crossing
And find Maura, Maura? Where are you?
The three of us are jumping into National Novel Writing Month, a marathon on keyboard starting Monday, November 1. The goal? To draft a 50,000-word novel/novella/long story from start to finish (well sorta) in 30 days.
I can't imagine how this will go for me. Which is pitiful, considering the entire point is to exercise the imagination. Open on my desktop is a long letter from the NaNoWri-To Team outlining the rules of engagement (no rules), the opportunities for discovery and literary madcap fun (I think not) , and suggestions for getting through the month despite the "specter of personal humiliation" looming at every page.
"You've read a lot of novels," the email states, "so you're completely up to the challenge of writing one." Oh really? I don't know about you, but I find there's a distinction between a reading an actual book and facing an actual blank page.
I don't have a plan, other than to crawl along the page, at my own pace, one word at a time, 1667 words a day, sweeping every last crumb, note, and passing observation into the word count. I barely have a glimmer of where to start. Breaking the first rule to "write what you know," I'm heading down the road, knowing nothing whatsoever -- winging it, a wild turtle crossing.
Wish us luck. And thanks for stopping by.
