I love the idea of National Novel Writing Month. Love the idea of clear goals and a deep commitment to finishing a project and working every day. The organization it’s attached to is so encouraging and has awesome resources – the whole concept of it makes me feel a sort of sunbeams and chocolate and Disney Princess style happy. But…
I’ve never done it.
Part of it is the timing – for a person whose day job is connected to the academic calendar November is never going to be an easy month for giant projects, add that to nap inducing shorter days, a semi-stressful travel heavy holiday, and …well, you get the idea.
Plus, every time NaNoWriMo has come along and I have been wholly in writer mode I’m always in the middle of some other project. As tempting as it might be to play with a shiny new toy I have the companion novel to Rell to finish, MFA class assignments to write, and a whole other novel that’s finished, but needs a lot of edits before it’s ready to go anywhere.
So maybe I need to make this month National Novel Finishing Month – or at least National Minimal Procrastination on My Writing Goals Month – which doesn’t have the same ring to it, but may be just as important for me.
Jenel Alan 