NaNoWriMo

I've just done it. Technically, it's not really a massive commitment, but it still feel like an actual promise has been made. I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short).

I think I first heard about NaNoWriMo a few years ago,  but I forgot all about it until sometime earlier this year. Again, I don't remember what it was that brought it back to me, but it was probably around the time I started feeling the itch to start writing again, and I was googling for writing advice.

In short (for those who have never heard of it and who can't be bothered to look it up on Wikipedia) NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a novel of 50 000 words during the month of November. It has participants from all over the world, with online discussion forums and local meetings to provide support, and a community of sorts.

I've loved writing for as long as I can remember. These past few years I've had periods of creativity where I've produced quite a lot of text, but I've never found a story that has been able to take me past short story length. I have ideas all the time, but somehow I never seem able to find enough depth in them to develop them into an actual story. Maybe the deadline, and some other aspects of this program will give me a boost to get going.

My only problem is that this plan doesn't go too well with writing my thesis. We'll see how it goes. I want to at least give it a go, and if I fail - well, there's always next year!

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