Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Go Forth and Write

Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory.
René Chateaubriand (1768 - 1848), writer

To all the NaNoWriMo contestants I wish you the best in your quest to write 50,000 words by Nov. 30.

For those of you who are not aware of November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), as they say, it’s a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

I have noticed a number of bloggers have mentioned their participation this year and if I was thinking I would have written them down, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Good luck and write until your fingers are numb.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than write for the public and have no self.
Cyril Connolly (1903 - 1974), writer and journalist

6 comments:

Lorianne said...

It's just past 5 am my time, and I just cranked out the first 1,000 or so words: woo-hoo! It's November 1st, and life is good...now, just check back in a week or so to see how I'm doing *then*! :-)

The Misanthrope said...

Lorianne, good luck. I have no doubt you will even surpass the 50,000 word goal.

The Misanthrope said...

Writers, check out Lorianne's "Get It Written" site. If I blogrolled it correctly it should be down the righthand side.

Lorianne said...

Thanks for the link. The word-count isn't what's daunting: believe me, a career as an English prof/lit scholar makes you VERY wordy! :-) What's daunting is the question of quality: some of the stuff I wrote last year was so stinky, I needed a shovel to spread it. ;-)

But, "it's just a first draft..."

Janet said...

My question is who are these people and how do they find the time!?

The Misanthrope said...

Lorianne, I thought quality was not supposed to be an issue. Because it's worrying about quality that will slow must people down.

Janet, dedicated writers no doubt. I know that On the Mark did it a year or two ago. When determined we can always make time.