Mon, October 19th

[atmilliways]

I just realized that October is half over. The time to decide has come again.

Should I do National Novel Writing Month? I haven't actually tried since high school, when I didn't finish. I do have an idea but I've been dragging my heels on it because world building is hard and I'd need to do a lot, and that's harder to do with a word count

Comments

[mountaincalling]

I've been asking myself the same question. I did it last year, and I managed to win, but just barely - I think I had something like 50,072 words at like 11:59 pm on the last day. That said, I could have made it less stressful on myself - I went out of town for a weekend in November and lost valuable time, and I procrastinated, and all that.

I think you need to decide if participating is going to ultimately help you or hurt you. Do the pros outweigh the cons?

Maybe you could set a different goal, rather than just the 50,000 words. Maybe shoot for 30,000 instead? I decided against doing 50,000 this year - I am far busier now than I was last year, and I think I'd just be stressed to the point of hating myself and my life for a month - but I'm going to set a revision goal instead, so that I can get closer to actually completing last year's novel.

Just a thought...hope that helps!

[atmilliways]

I think the pros outweigh the cons... And I'm trying to get my girlfriend to do it too. We'll see. If I have to drop my word count goal down I will, no harm no foul.

[atmilliways]

It does, but it would be a relief to get something finished and then be able to go back and edit a complete thing. One of my big problems as a writer is that I tend to start things and never finish them. Or never start them. I think this may be the kick in the pants I need.

And if I have to drop my word count expectations or count some supplementary world building writing that I do, then that works.

[stray_infinity]

I think if it'll give you a sense of accomplishment and help you have fun for the month, then you should go for it. No doubts about it :). Hard tasks can build character.

Get it? Build character?!

[atmilliways]

Lol, character building is my favorite part of writing. Rimshot, double entendre totally intended.