November is National Novel Writing Month (commonly called NaNoWriMo). Each year thousands of people take a shot at producing 50,000 words between November 1st and 30th. This year I’m joining in.
What do you do when you find yourself the owner of a dog who does such strange things that even seasoned dog owners don’t know what to tell you? You write stories about him. Blogging about our dog Ozzie has been good, but I’m taking this to the next level, as we Americans love to say. Between tomorrow and the end of the month, I will join thousands of other wrimos and churn out a draft of a book, mine being about what it’s been like to own this dog. But to keep the pressure off, I’m not referring to it as a novel or even a book. I’m focusing on producing an ebook.
Eventually, I will take this draft and edit it and polish it and make it all good. I don’t know how long that will take (months? years?), but when it’s done I’m not deluding myself about finding an agent or a publisher. I plan to publish the ridiculous story myself, using an online publishing service. Then I’ll share it with the world as an ebook.
Yes, this is my dream: to nurture and grow my creative project from a bunch of glowing words on a screen to a bunch of glowing words on another screen. Here I go.
Ryan – thank you. In the first three days of NaNoWriMo, I wrote 4,372 words. Back to it again today!
Steve – what's better than writing? Actually, my favorite activities include reading and watching TV shows (or horror movies), but I find it hard to stay away from writing for long. I hope you get to your writing eventually.
Wow, that's great. Best wishes with the project and enjoy the ride. I should blog/write about a lot of things but somehow I keep finding something else more interesting or exciting to do. Hmmm, maybe someday….
Yeah!