Ladies and Gentlemen... Start... Your .... Laptops! posted 10/21/2009 4:35:14 AM | 2 kudos what's this?     report abuse tagged: writing

Nightowl001

You have only a little over 260 hours from… now! (If you're on Central Standard Time.)

To do what? Well, my friends and foes…

As of now, you have approximately 260 hours to outline, pore feverishly through your old writer's notebooks and journals, practice speed typing and do whatever it takes for you to be ready for NaNoWriMo! (Don't blame me; I think it's a dumb, awkward-to-pronounce inelegant acronym, but I wasn't around to give my input at its inception!)

Said dumb acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month!

It's a contest! It's a challenge! It's a hoot! And all you have to do is decide to write your novel during the month of November. (Or at least 50,000 words of it.) Actually, the organizers can explain it much better than I can. Their explanation can be found here: NaNoWriMo

We obviously have several aspiring writers here on MD, and this is just the kind of thing they might (heck with might, should) be interested in.

By signing up to participate, you can share stories about the joys (and despairs) of writing. Get tips, get ideas, get pep talks, and get feedback and support from other writers going through the same thing you are. Track your daily word count. Find out how others get past those creative land mines where the story always seems to peter out. Maybe learn how to have the discipline needed to not only say "I want to write a novel," but get your story on paper and say "I wrote a novel!"

But remember, it's cheating to begin before 12:00:01 a.m. on November 1, 2009. Then it’s a marathon to the finish by 11:59:59 on November 30, 2009. Make notes, make outlines, make character bios, but do not begin until instructed to open your test booklets! (I'm not real clear on how they feel about setting your clock on your computer to Fiji time to get a jump on it.)

Remember what Red Smith says about writing! "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."


If you decide to participate, be sure to find TheNightowl, and add me to your writing buddies. I hope to see several of my MD friends over there!

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