November is National Novel Writing Month

I know November is still a good time away. But just to get into the preparation of it, I'll jump the gun. November is National Novel Writing Month. Who declared it, I dunno, but it's well-known.

I don't realistically think that I would be a novelist. One problem I see is that I can't commit. I will never be able to decide on what iPod to buy, or what color to paint my walls. For some reason I have an extreme difficulty in making irreversible decisions.

Then again, who knows if I may write a novel or not? These days, anybody who's anybody is writing a book, whether it is fictional or not. The Clintons, Madeline Albright, Ann Coulter, Elizabeth Dole -- I mean, they have full rights to write an autobiography if they want, but their numbers are shooting up into the sky. I'm surprised Dubya hasn't popped out with one himself -- perhaps after he retires from politics. So why not me?

NaNo WriMo is holding a contest, to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Is 50,000 words enough to be a novel? How many pages would this be? After punching some numbers, I came out with about 1667 words per day. That doesn't seem like a lot. Of course, if you're writing fiction and all the elements of the work has to come out of your ass (alluding to my brother's favorite saying "I picked it out of my ass"), it might be tougher. I can usually write a good 1500 word essay in a day, and then put some more words in on my blog and so on. On average I probably write about 800-1000 words a day, possibly up to 1500 on a hyper day. Can it really be that difficult? Of course, writing quality material is another story. NaNo WriMo's contest doesn't include quality as part of their requirement -- it's not that they want poorly written novels -- they want writers to write for the sake of writing, without fear of the need to revise, without hindrance. Sort of like an exercise.

I've decided to take the plunge, just to see what I come up with. Of course, that is, if my computer can be fixed in the near future. There is just no way for me to handwrite 1667 words a day. What am I, dumb?

I have made a few novelist friends through blogs in the last few months/years, and I don't mean to downplay their efforts on their novels. Of course writing novels is difficult. It's painstaking, I whole-heartedly agree. My purpose would be to see if I can actually commit myself into writing something, anything, and keep up with it for an extended period of time (and 30 days for me is truly like a lifetime). It's about committing to something, a project, and working to reach a goal. I don't think I've reached a goal in a long time. It's mostly due to my inherent lack of dilligence and persistence. I may sound cocky to say so, but I'm brilliant -- but too bad I don't have the work-ethics to make it work. So I need my computer now.