Blog, blog, blog! Everyone wants to blog these days. Why? What does it mean to blog? It simply means to write down random thoughts or specific thoughts. Just write! Is a blog like a journal? Yes, in most cases it is. However, when you journal your thoughts on paper or save them to your own computer, they are for your eyes only. When you blog, your thoughts are out there for the whole world to read. Call me old-school, but I like the journaling that's for my eyes only.
Every year around this time, you can see people in sort of a daze. Not everyone mind you, just a few rather disheveled types wandering around chewing their lips and looking off into space as if they were thinking about the nature of the universe.
Well, they are. You see these people are writers, and they are spending these last two weeks of October thinking of the novel they are going to write from start to finish during the month of November.
Every ludicrous journey deserves a good send-off. Like spending 30 days writing a 50,000-word novel; that definitely counts. This year the Kansas City metro will be hosting two--that's right--two kick-off parties to inaugurate National Novel Writing Month 2010. The first is on October 23rd at 2 p.m. at the Johnson County Central Resource Library.
It's that time of year again. Every November since 1999, writers around the country (and now the world) have dedicated thirty days to "literary abandon." In other words, it's National Novel Writing Month (also known as Nanowrimo).
Well, we missed National Spinach-Lovers’ Month, National Toilet Tank Repair Month, and National Sun Dried Tomato Month in October. We’re a little late starting for November, but I found one I think most people can relate to; the NaBloPoMo. or National Blog Posting Month.
Right away, I liked their site. The theme for November is there is no theme for November, and my favorite frequently asked question on the site is “Why is it called National Blog Posting Month if it happens every month?”
So, you say that you’ve been noticing all of your friends’ facebook statuses changing to say something like "ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT TALK TO ANYONE UNTIL I FINISH WRITING." Wondering what all the word count comparing is about? Feeling a little confused? Left out? Worry no more, the answer is here! It’s November, and that means NaNoWriMo, of course.
Well here we are, over halfway through NaNo, and I don't know about you, but I have hit the 30k slump. I have participated in NaNo for 3 years, and each year I find that the hardest part of the novel to write is that little bit after the halfway mark. I dash my way through to 25k. Then...it hits, what do I write now??? It is time to start wrapping up the book, and I am not ready! I hit the pep talks and the procrastination station; I clean the house, anything to avoid writing those few words to get myself to 40k. Once I hit 40k, it is all downhill.
Every year in November, John Williams writes novels with me. So do James Horner and Michael Giacchino. But this year, it's a lot of John. He sits beside me while I type out the story that unfolds in my mind, cheering me on. It's true. Well, it feels like it's true.
