It's NanoWriMo Time!
And I'm Not Writing a Novel
In more recent years, I've still failed to fully embrace the Nano bug -- although I thouroughly respect those who do. But I've come to realize that the whole "novel" part of NanoWriMo is really an optional thing.
A few days ago, in the midst of attending a writing festival at my Alma Mater I wrote an article on Helium called How to make National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) work for you. In that article I focus on spirit of NanoWriMo that goes beyond the 50,000 word novel, but more importantly asks writers to step up our game and challenge ourselves to pursue an aggressive writing goal. Certainly, non-novelists can get in on this goal.
Although I do call myself a novelist, having written No Sensible People, novel writing is not in the cards for me right now. What I am trying to do is make some money through freelancing online. So far, this has not proven easy, but I am not giving up.
Over the past few months, I have determined the best fit and most potential for me personally on the following sites; Gather, Associated Content, Helium, Suite 101, and my blog. I have decided that each of these sites will get an average of 5 posts a week over the course of November-- and possibly beyond. For me, this is an aggressive writing goal. Some posts can be written quickly from the top of my head, while others may take hours of research. But when all is said and done by Sunday November 7 at 11:59 p.m. there should be (at least)25 new posts from me out on the World Wide Web, with the goal repeating on the 14th, 21st, 28th, and beyond.
Can I pull it off? Certainly, but I will have to all but superglue my nose to the grindstone in order to do it. Thanks Nano for the inspiration. This just might be the kick I need.
Published by Gretchen Lee Bourquin
I am the mother of two college students living outside Minneapolis, MN. I write fiction, poetry, informational articles and commentary pieces on various topics. My work has appeared in various places onl... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentW00t! You go, Gretch. I've been seein all your recent output come through. I'm doin nanowrimo, myself, and am about four days behind! It's rough, but gettin better. Practice makes perfect, right?
Diana-- I swear it looked like the tip of a pencil with the eraser worn down when I added it. And no, I haven't been hitting the bottle....
...and pineapple rum goes so well with writing! I enjoyed reading this, Gretchen Lee.
Great perspective. The spirit of NaNo can be used for any writing goal. Have you seen the AC WriMO thread in the forums?