Remember, remember - have fun in November
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 3:48PM 
Word count: 197 Reading Time: 1 min.
Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Have you started the challenge of producing an entire, 50,000 word novel in a single month?
I got an idea for the 2011 NaNoWriMo just last week. I was poking it with a stick when a tweet from Writer’s Digest delivered three essential questions: What is going to happen? What does the main character want? What are the turning points? Once I knew I could answer these, I took my lump of clay and waited for the starting gun.
Last year I discovered that finishing a first draft in thirty days was satisfying. However, reaching one milestone took me to another starting point. My NaNoWriMo 2010 draft took months to move to an almost-satisfactory state. I think it’s there now but I’m giving it a rest.
Am I daunted by the prospect that this novel might need the same reshaping as last year’s? A bit. Will I add thousands of new words while deleting thousands of existing ones? Definitely. Will I have fun? Absolutely. To be sure, I’ll keep Steven Pressfield’s thoughts on the fun of writing close at hand.
What’s on your potter’s wheel? Is it fun to watch it take shape?
Photo: Richard Rudisill
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National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) http://nanowrimo.org/en
Writer’s Digest – How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo http://bit.ly/rIrGX3
Steven Pressfield – Is Writing Fun? http://tinyurl.com/244jpag