I’m writing this post in Pages on my iPad, and will upload it onto my iDisk, since my WordPress app isn’t working correctly. There, enough technology references for ya?

I see that I haven’t written any in the last six weeks. Which is unusual compared to how frequently I posted when I started this thingie here. I guess time and different life circumstances make for a lot of change and will alter one’s writing/documenting habits.

Nanowrimo is coming up in a couple of weeks (they’re already ramping up their tweets on Twitter). If you”ll remember from last year, November is NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth and I took part in that and it was fun.

So in order to get back into writing maybe doing this on my iPad (which I love, btw) will make it a little more fun to write. Stay tuned to see if I tackle nanowrimo this year.

National Novel Writing Month official ended five days ago, but I’m just now uploading the content that I have written. The goal was a 50,000 word piece, and I knew I wouldn’t make it to that goal. I originally thought I could hit the 20,000 mark but I failed miserably in achieving that almost halfway goal. I wrote a little over 10% of the stated goal of 50K, ending with 5738 words.

In hindsight I should have set off an hour a day (or even 1/2 hour) just to sit down and write. The premise of NaNoWriMo is to just continue writing, to keep going at it without thinking about it too much. Sort of a stream of consciousness. I got lost in the trance of writing a couple of times and that was really fun but that didn’t happen too often and starting up the next time seemed a little daunting. And maybe I thought about it too much, where the characters were going and how they were interacting to get into the flow of it.

For example, I never really got to explore Mark’s numerology, the relationship between he and Aleah, Daniel’s larger part in Mark’s life and Mark never got another review with his boss, Helena, and I was really waiting for that. I wanted Georgie’s chapter(s) to be more in depth but had to squeeze in the first one in order to hit the writing deadline.

You can read my 5738 words below.

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Can you see how frequently I’m writing here? Answer: not very. Or at least that’s how it seems to me. With nothing going on to really write about, except resume sending-out and that can get pretty dull real quickly, well, there’s nothing to really write about.

A blogger friend I mostly keep in touch with through Twitter started mentioning the hashtag #NaNoWriMo. I clicked on it and saw that others were tagging it at as well but I couldn’t figure out what it was by their tweets. A quick google search provided the answer I was looking for.

Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? Well it is. Look it up. It’s an online project where writers “feverishly” pound out a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That’s 1,666 words a day. The outlook on it is not to edit and not to think about it too much. Just write. They even say “it’s about quantity, not quality.” So while it’s not supposed to be stream of consciousness (although I guess it could be) the idea is to write without knowing where your characters are going, but for you to keep going with the writing.

In 2008 5% of the 119,000 who entered finished the lofty goal of 50,000 words. Seeing as how I started already a day behind (November 2) I really doubt I will finish successfully. 1,666 words a day, every day, is a lot of tappity-tapping. We’ll see how it goes. If I can finish with 20,000 words I think that would even be an accomplishment. I’ll post a downloadable pdf once it’s complete and you can read the missing plot and lack of character arcs for yourself.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

If you’d like to join the madness yourself, please link your author name to “futurejunkie” so I can see how far behind you are as well.