National Novel Writing Month is this insane thing I attempt to do every few months or so, wherein I try to write a 50K word novel in about 30 days. And while the concept may sound slightly impressive, the truth of the matter is that I spend 30 days staying up till four in the morning, submerged in word-wars and fueled only by pretzels and Mountain Dew.
Which, minus the word-wars, isn't that different than my usual life.
Hmm.
Anyways, the problem with NaNoWriMo is that it's title is incredibly misleading. The "National" might make it seem as if it's only confined to America. Which is incorrect, seeing as to how last year, 256,618 writers from over 50 countries around the world participated.
Then there's the bigger issue of the "Month" in the title. The "Month" foolishly makes one believe that this will be a one-and-done ordeal: they'll spend 30 days writing a novel and then continue on their merry way, the bragging rights of having written an entire novel compensation for their time.
What they don't expect is to tumble head-over-heels in love with NaNoWriMo, and participate obsessively whenever they have the chance. They don't expect to avidly follow the staff blog, to stare longingly at the online store, or to start planning their novel plots months in advance. Also, no one ever thought to warn the impressionable young teenager that by joining one innocent little writing event, she would then go on to jealously admire posts made by interns, research just what qualifications were needed for a job at the non-profit's parent organization, (The Office of Letters and Light) and bemoan the fact that she'd have to wait until she was 21 to attend the Night of Writing Dangerously.
The problem with NaNo-ing is that it doesn't just last a month. It ends up becoming some sort of parasitic lifestyle, wherein one day you wake up only to find there's a NaNoWriMo poster on your walls, an "I ♥ NaNo" bracelet on your wrist, and when you turn to glance at your laptop, the chatroom full of your other NaNo buddies is still up from a few hours before.
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| The aforementioned poster, which is currently staring down at me. |
The cool thing about being obsessed with NaNoWriMo is that it's something worth being obsessed about. It helps promote literary skills in adults and youths around the world, makes thousands of people feel accomplished and proud of themselves, and produces kick-ass design work and merchandise all the while. NaNoWriMo has produced a long list of published books, some of which you may have heard of.
So even though I may be depressed about waiting years (years!) to wait until I taste my first Novel-tini at the Night of Writing Dangerously, I am pretty gosh-darned excite about the prospect of NaNoWriMo, 2012.
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