Only two days from the start of November. For many people that means a colder bite to the air, the first snow, asking people what they want for Christmas, and promises to not eat so much at Thanksgiving. To many others it means the start of National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo is a month long mad dash to pound out 50,000 words of a novel. The goal is not to make a great novel, but to just write a novel. 50,000 words would give you about a 175 page novel, basically a short novel, unless you are Mitch Albom.
I plan to attempt this feat during November 2006. A recent discovery might complicate things for me. I seem to write best not in front of my trusty Apple iBook, but instead I write the best on paper, by pen. This means that I must choose between writing in my lovely Moleskine notebook or on legal pads. A choice, which by the way, is as tough as choosing between using Microsoft Word, Apple TextEdit, or TexShop as my writing software.
For those who are interested, my writing workflow will be as follows.
- Plot out or “Storyboard” my novel on 3×5 index cards.
- Create some character cards that describe different details about the characters in the story.
- Take an scene card (a 3×5 index card from #1) and handwrite the scene out.
- Type in the handwritten pages to MS Word–This will serve as the first revision also.
A little complicated? Yes, but from the test I have already did a week or so ago, I think it will work out great for me.
So, wish me luck in my quest for 50,000 words. You can keep up to date with my progress here.
