I know that every journalist secretly wants to be a novelist. In fact, I know for certain that there are several novels languishing in the minds of Mercury staffers at this very moment (but let us never speak of a certain someone's Battlestar/The Hills, crossover fan fiction-shudder).
Thank god, then, for the dark and stormy nights of November and nanowrimo.org. If you haven't heard, next month is National Novel Writing Month, and nanowrimo.org (celebrating its 10th anniversary) wants you to write 125 pages (50,000 words) between November 1st and November 30th:
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
The idea is to sign up to participate at nanowrimo.org, where you'll be able to post your cumulative word count, and excerpts, as you write. If you finish your 50,000 words by midnight on November 30th, you upload your novel for verification, are added to the winners page, and get to walk around smugly for at least three months, having written a novel.
Then, of course, you'll discover that your novel will never be published, begin to feel that the effort was in vain, and sink into the crippling depression. On the bright side, those murky emotional depths will be perfect fodder for your next novel.
I already have several friends who've signed up, and I plan to do so today. I figure that every month I produce something like 2,400 words in food reviews and Mercury ephemera. If I can somehow work that into the plot of a novel, then I already have a damn good start. Lemme see... Oh, I know. I'll write a novel about a moody young food critic who, after receiving letters mocking his prowess as a writer, goes on a rampage where he... he umm... he finds his critics... and... and... prepares delightful meals for them because they have helped to humble him and make him a better writer... yeah, that's it...
Anyway, I extend a challenge to all Mercury readers and my fellow editors. I know you wanna do it. What? You chicken or something?
