#96 - Participate in and complete a novel in NaNoWriMo.

"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."

Against my better judgment I have decided to nip my procrastination in the bud once and for all and take on NaNoWriMo - or the National Novel Writing Month tradition of writing a 50,000 word (175 page) novel in 30 days. OMG!

My good friend Kevin Flanigan turned me onto this project, and I immediately knew that I just had to do it. As a writer, I spend WAY too much time thinking about my stories and characters, and not a lot of doing. Not a lot of bringing to life. And that's embarrassing...and sad. Being easily "enthused", the prospect of NaNoWriMo is delightful. You log onto a website where you can share your word count, chat in forums with the thousands of other crazy people trying to write a novel in 30 days, and get and give moral support. Also, because it is obviously an insane task, you're expected to write something pithy, insensibly long, and comical. Finally, a writing program that isn't pretentious!!! Take that, Starbucks! And creative writing students in small LDS liberal arts colleges!

Needless to say I'm really excited. I've downloaded a fantastic trial version of a writing software for Mac called Scrivener (find it here) that will save my butt. It has a sweet interface where you can type fullscreen on a book-esque page so you're not distracted by the ugly-looking Microsoft Word technical business. It's open as a free trial from now until December 7th, when NaNoWriMo officially ends and the prizes are given out, and if you finish your novel by Nov. 30th, you get 50% off the full version (making it like $25 bucks). Or, if you're a participant, you get 20% off. Awesome awesome awesome.

In preparation for my "30 days and nights of literary abandon", I'm doing most of my academic reading and writing assignments now. This is the most responsible of a student I've ever been in my entire life. Crazy what a little motivation will do.

Update: You can view my progress, novel info, and word count here! If you're doing NaNoWriMo, add me as a writing buddy! I need all the motivation I can get.