National Novel Writing Month is coming. November 2023. I have not attempted it in a few years but I think it is time. This incentive/contest support group has helped me a lot in the past and I hope it will help me again. Getting myself psyched to spend every waking minute (and some sleeping ones) writing in order to crank out 50,000+ words on my next story is not easy.
I recently read remarks from an author I admire, Viet Thanh Nguyen, writing a pep-talk for writing in the next NanoWriMo. His subject was actually about Reading Widely and Deeply as one of the things required in order to be a good writer.
One thing he said stood out boldly to me. “If you can’t do 10,000 hours of writing, by yourself, you probably won’t be a writer.” Think about that. Especially if you’re a writer who is just starting out in life. 10,000 hours of writing is about 10 years of writing 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year with no breaks. That brings a lot into perspective for me.
This year I have three options I’m still weighing for my Nano project. First, I can continue with my project from 2017, which is titled “Conflicted”. The protagonist here is a person with DID (dissociative identity disorder) who is a master of their disease. Second, I can continue a project even older than that called “Alexander’s Tale”. This is a coming of age story with strong LGBTQ+ themes that I’ve always loved but that has always wandered into the mud late in the story. And third, I could always start a whole new project. I honestly haven’t decided what to do yet.
I’ll also be trying to do some fun things here on my website to keep myself from wearing out and losing enthusiasm and I’m going to focus on getting those 50,000 words written!
Wish me luck! And if you are considering doing NaNoWriMo this year and want a writing buddy, hit me up here.
