[Note: this blog entry originally appeared in my November 2002 NaNoWriMo blog. I’ve now moved all of those entries into the “Imagine a Novel Weblog” category of this blog.]
I guess I’ll use this space to document minutiae that I anticipate “normal readers” of my anti-blog won’t care to read every time I post. However, I reserve the right to scrap this page and just write about writing (sigh…) in the anti-blog.
See, I’m not entirely certain whether the process of writing an average of 1700 or so words a day will increase my anti-blog output (since I’ll be so used to writing) or whether it will decrease it (since I’ll be so tired of writing). This will be an interesting experiment for me.
In the meantime, I’m a bit worried about what I’ll actually write about. In the past couple years, I’ve occasionally thought about writing fiction… someday. I’ve also casually considered writing a fictionalized account of some things that have happened to me (i.e. the Dave Eggers approach, which might be cheap, since I’m not Dave Eggers). However, I don’t have any idea what I’ll start writing about in three days. I have a few themes and concepts in mind. I’ll probably write in first-person. Still, I don’t have any clear ideas about characters, plot, setting, genre, or anything else. You know, all those other things that go into writing a good novel.
Of course, there’s the proverbial rub. The “contest” isn’t really designed to elicit good novels, just 50,000-word novels. I, however, am used to holding myself up to a high (and often unrealistic) standard, which often results in my not trying new things (since I obviously can’t start with a high level of skill). Though I’m convinced that what I write will not be total crap, I just have to accept that it won’t be great. I also have to tell myself that this is an exercise to help me learn to write. Throughout my life, the more pressure I’ve been under, the better work I’ve created, and, I think, the more I’ve learned.
I also need to make time to do the freelance work I’m getting paid to do, but that should be no problem. I work 20 hours a week at CLCV, and have scheduled in 20 hours a week to do NARRP until I’m done. The rest of the time I’ll spend writing. [Sleeping and eating will come naturally.] This is not self-deception, I swear.