Just so you know, I am going to write a novel.
My friend Brad told me about this site last year, which promotes November as a National Novel Writing Month. Check it out. The guidelines are easy: In the month of November, you have to write a novel. Sounds good. I always wanted to be able to say that I�ve written a novel, so hopefully by November 30th, I�ll be able to say that.
Now, there are a few catches. First of all, I suck at writing fiction. Second of all, I don�t have a topic. But that doesn�t matter, since the site is geared more towards quantity than quality (and it explicitly states that). Aside from the satisfaction of being able to say you wrote a novel, there are no prizes, but if you complete the challenge, you can say that you �won.� To �win,� your novel needs to have at least 50,000 words, which apparently works out to the equivalent of 175 pages or so. Especially since I don�t have a topic, that number kind of concerned me, until I saw that my Nicaragua story had about 8,000 words (and I wrote that in one long evening). I know that there�s definitely a difference between writing non-fiction (easy) and fiction (hard), but I still have a feeling I�ll be able to pass that 50,000 word mark.
So, wish me luck. If you�re interested, you can also join and try to write your own novel. We can take part in some long-distance, coffee-based commiseration and egg each other on to the finish line. In the meantime, I�ll try to keep some sort of word count tally on either this blog or www.ryansitzman.com, although I�ll still have the same internet connection issues that I usually have. And who knows, if any part of what I write turns out to be worth a damn, then maybe I�ll put some of it up here or on my website.
Now, if you�ll excuse me, I have to start writing an outline.
My friend Brad told me about this site last year, which promotes November as a National Novel Writing Month. Check it out. The guidelines are easy: In the month of November, you have to write a novel. Sounds good. I always wanted to be able to say that I�ve written a novel, so hopefully by November 30th, I�ll be able to say that.
Now, there are a few catches. First of all, I suck at writing fiction. Second of all, I don�t have a topic. But that doesn�t matter, since the site is geared more towards quantity than quality (and it explicitly states that). Aside from the satisfaction of being able to say you wrote a novel, there are no prizes, but if you complete the challenge, you can say that you �won.� To �win,� your novel needs to have at least 50,000 words, which apparently works out to the equivalent of 175 pages or so. Especially since I don�t have a topic, that number kind of concerned me, until I saw that my Nicaragua story had about 8,000 words (and I wrote that in one long evening). I know that there�s definitely a difference between writing non-fiction (easy) and fiction (hard), but I still have a feeling I�ll be able to pass that 50,000 word mark.
So, wish me luck. If you�re interested, you can also join and try to write your own novel. We can take part in some long-distance, coffee-based commiseration and egg each other on to the finish line. In the meantime, I�ll try to keep some sort of word count tally on either this blog or www.ryansitzman.com, although I�ll still have the same internet connection issues that I usually have. And who knows, if any part of what I write turns out to be worth a damn, then maybe I�ll put some of it up here or on my website.
Now, if you�ll excuse me, I have to start writing an outline.
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