NaNoWriMo 2022

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Throughout November, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As the name might suggest, this entails writing a novel over the course of a month. The default target is 50,000 words, which amounts to around 1,667 words per day.

Many participants use NaNoWriMo as a jumping off point for producing a first draft of a book that they will later knock into shape, sometimes with the long-term aim of selling it to a publisher, or publishing the work themselves.

I am participating for slightly different reasons: For several months I have been working on a novel that has been meticulously plotted and is now being meticulously written, to the best of my limited abilities. As an antidote to this lengthy and methodical process, I want to write something on the fly, where I sit down and hammer away at the keyboard with only a very vague idea of where I might be going.

Those who adopt a more organised approach to NaNoWriMo, will have spent October plotting their novel. My preparation amounts to a three-sentence synopsis, a list of names and job titles, and another list of made-up place names. I have also penned a short blurb for my entry on the NaNoWriMo website:

                                    Sherstov, the Party Chairman is dying from kidney failure.

                                    It is left to Pavel Garin to venture out into the night, round up 
                                    the organ donors from a list of matches, and return with them 
                                    to Party HQ before daybreak. An easy task were there not other 
                                    forces in the wind working towards different agendas.

                                    The Benefactor Index is intended as an unplotted, stream of 
                                    consciousness novella set in the re-imagined landscape of     
                                    Soviet-Era Russia.

When writing to a word count, 1,667 words is a barely tolerable constraint on creativity. When you are lacking a framework, or even a clear idea of what you will be writing, it is suddenly a very tall order. When what you write on a given day has to connect in a meaningful way with what you produced on the previous days, it is a challenge.

Because I have no intention of doing anything with the novel beyond bringing it into existence, I will be posting whatever I produce here on my blog. Ideally this will occur on a daily basis. These entries will be edited for spelling and coherence. Aside from that they will be raw pieces of work written at speed. I have some sketchy ideas regarding a story arc. When I reach the end of these threads, I imagine that the narrative will begin to collapse in on itself.

If the spectacle of a man massively overreaching and then tripping over his feet is of interest, then I invite you to join me on what I believe that I am obligated to describe as an 'amazing journey'.

If you feel that the impending undignified shambles is best avoided then I will clearly label any NaNoWriMo entries so they can be easily sidestepped.

This grand folly will commence on Tuesday 1st November.

image generated by Craiyon


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