November...Oh November...

This is the time of year where my On This Day memories fill up with plans for NaNoWriMo. I've done it three times. Did it differently for all three only once following the "rules" for NaNo. Shocking, I know. And I SWORE the last time I did it would be the LAST time I did it. 

It's hard. It's draining. I came to the conclusion a few years ago that I really like to write but I don't want to invest in the business of writing. That having that published book that I thought I really wanted wasn't actually all that important to me. And NaNo is geared toward getting that book done. Getting that first draft underway. So there is no reason to do it. 

It's also a really hard time of year to get it done. It used to be that Brent would travel for a week every November to Super Computing. So I would always bake that extra time in and aim to finish before Katie got home for Thanksgiving. I didn't want to be tied to a word count when I could be spending time with her. So I would push to get those 50,000 words in by November 20th. And every year I would think, oh wow, I didn't actually write all that much more while Brent was gone...

And now he doesn't even go to Super Computing. And he works from home a few days a week and it's hard for me to write when he's home. I feel like I'm bothering him. Even though he SWEARS it doesn't bother him. But I type fast and hard so I know it has to bug him a little. And sometimes it's hard for me to tune him out as well. Corporate buzz words are the bane of creative thought...

So there is no way that NaNoWriMo would be a good thing this year.

But...

This is only the 90th piece I've written all year. And of those pieces only around a dozen have been fiction pieces. 

So...

I mean NaNo gets you going right? I mean once you set that goal you force choke the words out to make it. 

And it's been five years since I've done it so maybe I'm just remembering it as being harder than it really is. I mean, I did it three times so obviously I can totally do it.

And I wouldn't be trying to write a novel. I mean, that ship has sailed. I made peace with that a long time ago. I could do what I did the last time I did NaNo and just make it every single word I write. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, everything that could be a blog was a blog and that worked. 

I mean this is around 500 words so far so I just need to do this 100 more times. 

ONE HUNDRED MORE TIMES.

It's an average of 1667 words a day. Which means I'd need to write three times this length, every day. Including weekends and Thanksgiving and the week Katie is home for the holiday and all the days that Brent is working here in the office all while still running the house and working out and playing with the cats and getting the house FINALLY FUCKING FINISHED and...

It's a ridiculous idea. So...

No, I'm not doing it. But...

You knew there would be a twist. 

I'm going to do my own thing. 

So not so much of a twist as business as usual.

NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. Not going to happen.

But...

WriSoMoNo: Write Some More Now. That's what's up.

I'll figure out my rules by Monday and put those up. Thinking I'll aim for 25,000 words, maybe 30,000 if I'm feeling industrious. Split them somehow between fiction and nonfiction. Maybe set the number of days each week I am writing. I need some prompts or ideas for what to write about. I don't want all of them to be angry how the fuck did you vote that way pieces but I would guess there will be at least a few of those. 

 So yeah, NaNoWriMo is dead. Long live WriSoMoNo!