I’ve just signed up for NaNoWriMo. For what, you say? For National Novel Writing Month. The intention is to write a novel in one month (specifically, in November).
My first novel took several years (and far too many revisions) to get into shape, and after several months work I’m only about a quarter way through the first draft of my second, so the idea of completing a first draft in one month is a bit daunting, to put it mildly. I am rather rushing into this headlong, perhaps because I came across the website at exactly the right time. With only a week or so before the start, I had no time to get cold feet or lose enthusiasm. Plus, a few weeks ago I abandoned a short story on the grounds that it kept trying to turn into a novella (which I didn’t have time for when I already have a novel-in-progress); shortly after I dropped it another idea surfaced from the depths and collided with the first one. Together they might just make a novel. On a less pretentious and more practical note, I’ve just replaced my manky old chair and rickety desk, making my garret a much nicer place to spend a month.
So (I tell myself) it is my fate to do this. And it’ll be just the shot in the arm/ kick up the backside/ (insert preferred inspirational cliché here) that I need.
All that remains is to instruct Beloved in the operation of all household appliances, lay in a stock of junk-food, and work out the bloody plot.
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