NaNoWriMo

For those of you who haven't heard of National Novel Writing Month, you don't know what you're missing. The basic idea is simply to write 50,000 words between November 1st and 30th. It is not necessary to have a plot, or in fact any semblance of coherence. The point is quantity rather than quality; turning off your inner editor and just writing. It's often said that 99% of what a writer writes will be crap, so you need to write a lot of crap to get that 1% of good stuff. Sounds a bit mad, and I assure you, it is. ;)

So far, it has been an amazing experience. I've passed the 20k mark, and am extremely surprised to have gotten this far, but its such fun! Some days its been a slog, and I've had to force myself to write despite being tired, or having a headache. But other days it has been wonderful. I've gone sailing past my required daily word count, completely caught up in writing. So far I've written 3 complete short stories (though one would be better called a flash fiction piece), and I am fully intending to edit them later and try to get them published. I'm not saying they're wonderful, but I really enjoyed writing them, and felt very proud when I finished them.

I just have to say, that you will never meet such a bunch of crazy, funny and friendly people as you will while attempting this. It has a thriving community with so many people trading tips on writing, plot realism, dares to spark off a wavering plot, and just offering huge amounts of support. People getting discouraged after the first couple of days are met with a slew of posts offering advice and encouragement to keep at it. I've been enjoying it so much, I'm not sure what I'll do come December! I am definitely doing this again next year. :)