NaNoWriMo... or less

Tomorrow marks the start of National Novel Writing Month, when the internet (well, really the Office of Letters and Light, but mostly the internet) encourages everyone to write a 50'000 word novel in 30 days. It's not about writing the next best-seller; it's about pushing past writers' block and seeing how far your creativity can take you. It's about focusing on one storyline (it's a novel, not a series of short stories) and staying with it, not matter how much you hate it when you're writing at 2 a.m.

I've wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo since I first heard about it way back in eighth grade. But seriously? I don't have time for that. That's about the equivalent of writing five or six pages a day, and I have a difficult time writing a six page paper in two weeks. I get bored. I watch Star Trek: Voyager instead. I will actually clean my room before I make myself write a paper.

And that's where this blog comes in. I really only write academically, and that writing is reluctant and lacking in style. I'm taking a writing class that's definitely helping, but I'm only taking the class because it's a graduation requirement. So I'm going to take a stab at blogging and see where it gets me. Maybe writing something non-academic and un-focused will help me want to write, and maybe that desire will help me write better. In the words of the NaNoWriMo staff:

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

Hopefully it won't be a terrible journey -- or at least, hopefully it will be better than my time at FanFiction.net (it helped, but Lord, how embarrassing! You will not be getting a link to my account, no sir). So, let's give it a try.