N is for November and November is for Novels
Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? Well it is. And there is an organization called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) whose whole purpose is to encourage people to write a 50,000 word (175-page) novel within the 30 days of November. They give people who have always wanted to write a book what many of us need to get things done: a deadline. The time constraint also gives permission to write a lot crap since you don't have time to edit and tweek everything (or really anything) that you write.
Last year, I signed up, but I did not reach my 50,000 word goal. Brian took my computer with him to Belgium for one of the four weeks of writing time. It's hard to write 1,600 words a day by hand — mostly because you don't have the amazing word-count function in a paper notebook. Also I went to New Orleans for one of the remaining three weeks of November. It's hard to go on a service trip and find and hour or two each day to write a couple thousand words. So really I only tried for about a week and a half which is why I only made it up to about 10,000 words.
But this year my November looks a little less busy. I think that I might be able to do it.
So I signed up again. It doesn't cost anything and you get your own profile page where you can count your words and put a picture of yourself and a exerpt from your book once you've started it. There are chat rooms and help pages like plot ideas and lists of potential character names. It's pretty fun.
Anyone else want to write a book? Want to do it November? Want to do it with me?
Last year, I signed up, but I did not reach my 50,000 word goal. Brian took my computer with him to Belgium for one of the four weeks of writing time. It's hard to write 1,600 words a day by hand — mostly because you don't have the amazing word-count function in a paper notebook. Also I went to New Orleans for one of the remaining three weeks of November. It's hard to go on a service trip and find and hour or two each day to write a couple thousand words. So really I only tried for about a week and a half which is why I only made it up to about 10,000 words.
But this year my November looks a little less busy. I think that I might be able to do it.
So I signed up again. It doesn't cost anything and you get your own profile page where you can count your words and put a picture of yourself and a exerpt from your book once you've started it. There are chat rooms and help pages like plot ideas and lists of potential character names. It's pretty fun.
Anyone else want to write a book? Want to do it November? Want to do it with me?
posted by The Wifest at 5:07 PM
4 Comments:
Dude, seriously, I soooo far ahead of you!
check it!
Even though it is still October, and even though it does not relate directly to the topic at hand, I need to tell you this story. Perhaps that is OK simply because it is still October.
I was in St. Louis this week for business, staying at a hotel about three blocks North of Union Station on Market Street. Now October to me means the World Series and college football. Since it was Tuesday evening, I had no choice but to be focused on the playoff game between the Mets and Cardinals, being played about two four woods south of where I was watching on TV, and smoking a cigar (50 ring size X 6 inches, maduro wrapper) (note that I was smoking the cigar, the game was not doing so). Immediately as the game ended, I was startled to hear the fireworks from the stadium itself, inasmuch as the Cards had pulled ahead with a ripping victory in this, the 5th game of a best-of-seven series.
The next night, the series moved back to New York for game six. I, still being in St. Louis, completed my business early enough to find a local pub (Maggie MaGuires on Market Street), where I had a light dinner, a couple of Bass ales, and watched the ballgame with an unbiased eye (my personal loyalty remaining with the Cincinnattis), even while sitting among rabid, and for the most part knowledgeable Cardinal fanatics.
I found it ironic that I was in Katie's hometown (a little liscense taken here), watching her nominally favorite team (well it should be), playing in New York against perhaps her adopted second favorite team (since the Dodgers moved to LA in 1957), said competition taking place within a short cab ride of Park Slope.
These are the kind of situations that Brian most often finds himself in, and relates back so well. Maybe I am becoming more like Brian. Pretty soon I may be growing a beard and start wearing T-shirts that Arlo Guthrie gave to the Goodwill in 1973.
In college, my good friend Gail Goldberg would get really mad when I said that I was from around St. Louis. She was from St. Louis proper and went to St. Louis schools. Although I was born in St. Louis, I grew up on the other side of the Mississippi in Alton, IL - a 20 minute drive from St. Louis. Even though I watched the same St. Louis TV stations, listened to the same radio stations, shopped at the same malls for prom dresses, and went on the same Forest Park based field trips, Gail did not approve of me claiming proximity with her home town. However, she did not mind catching a ride to or from the "St. Louis area" with me during school breaks.
Maybe she didn't approve of me because I have always been nominally a Chicago Cub fan.
The only thought that I have given to New York sports team fandom was a few weeks ago when I thought about how my future kids might grow up Yankee or Mets fans if we raise them in New York which would be sort of weird (the yankee/mets part not the raising them in New York part).
Thanks for your story Aulden. I hope you enjoyed your time in my hometown area. You should write a novel in November. I bet it would be good.
Activated Charcoal, first a blog format overhaul and now a new profile picture, my world is all askew. Are you planning any other drastic changes anytime soon? I want to be prepared.
Well, I have no right to help you decide where to raise your prospective children. New York may do as well as say, Harrisburg, PA or Pierre, SD, and probably a lot better than Los Angeles. My "hands-off" approach ceases immediately however when it comes to baseball loyalties. I have decided in advance that children accruing to my immediate offspring will have a proper education. This means specifically that they understand and appreciate that baseball is played best, listened to on radio best, and loved most in the heartland, i.e anywhere west of Philadelphia. I assume personal responsibility for helping them become un-Met and un-Yankee followers. In this activity, I will solicit the approbation and support of their uncle Voorhees.
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