NaNoWriMo

A few days ago I signed up for a one-way ticket to insanity. In short: National Novel Writing Month, aka, NaNoWriMo. It challenges writers of all walks to punch out 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. Yes. That means, in order to succeed, said writer has to scribble out an average of 1,667 words a day.

Some people are well adept at this. I am not. First off, I only have a few hours a day to write. Yeah, I try to squeeze in a few things while Tristan, my toddler, is causing mayhem. But it's not exactly productive. Finding creative space while your kid is more than capable of taking advantage is a bad mom move. Especially since he's barely two and half. So you may be thinking, then why even do this NaNo-whatever-it's-called? Good question. Call it an exercise in delusions of grandeur.

I have this old screenplay that I wrote back before I was even in film school. It's crap. Utter crap. However, the idea and plot isn't half-bad. And since I'm not ridiculously attached to it, considering I haven't even read it since 2007,  I thought I'd try and adapt it into a manuscript and see what sticks.

As of now, I'm preparing the outline. This requires me to do some serious research on bio mechanics, judo, fencing, genetic engineering, and and volatile chemical compounds. Woo-Hoo!! It's actually very exciting. But also time consuming. Yet, if I get in all the legwork before the actual novel writing has commenced, I'll be more likely to succeed.

This whole thing begins on November 1st. And during that month I'll be going through midterms, temporarily raising a toddler alone while my husband is off in the woods surviving with a bunch of other Army dudes, editing the first draft of a different novel, and outlining the follow-up to that.



See, and now I read what I just wrote and think, yeah right. Nope. Not gonna happen.

But I'm a stubborn ass.

If anyone wants to join-up and try it out with me, Just click on the NaNoWriMo link *points left*.