Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Na - No - Wri - Mo

Because I am ever so slightly a person of the, um, obsessive variety --OK, I'm off my rocker --I like to have 20 projects going at once. And every November, National Novel Writing Month tempts me with its demanding 'can you deal with me?' love. I've only signed up once, about 3 years ago, and I didn't finish the novel but I found the experience oddly rewarding.

As for my 20 simultaneous projects habit. On the bright side: It keeps me stretching creatively. On the dark side: It can function as a creative form of self sabotage.

Anyway, if you've ever wanted to write a novel, I dare you to sign up. It's a really brilliant contest. Write 50,000 words in one month and do not look at what you're writing. No second guessing. No editing. No nothing other than the writing itself. The process cuts through all the ways writers force themselves not to write and just makes them brain vomit. So what if only 5,000 words of it are beautiful when you're done. When's the last time you wrote 5,000 beautiful words o' fiction?

Who's with me? (and before you ask none of the writing will be appearing on this blog. I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nate,
here's an Idea:
November may be National Novel Writing Month, but what if we, as members of the online entertainment news community made December "National Screenwriting Month."

Think of the potential output.

NATHANIEL R said...

ooh, what a cool idea.

PROJECTS!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm with ya!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and think of the potential blog games we could play with the screenplays:
Dreamcast your screenplay.
or Dream Director your screenplay.
or Dream whatever else..

NATHANIEL R said...

patrick --email me

NATHANIEL R said...

do i think that days are 39 hours long?

apparently I do.