Fiction Fundamentals

Welcome to November, the month where writers around the world are asking themselves the same question that pounded against my skull as I poured my first cup of coffee this morning, “What Have I Done?” Since November is somewhat synonymous with indulging ourselves–binging on bags of half-priced Halloween candy, stuffing our bellies alongside an overstuffed turkey, football overload, shop-til-you-drop sale storming, etc.–writers have taken the concept a step further, just in case we don’t have enough pre-holiday stress in our lives. Writers participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Not all writers, but plenty.

The purpose of NaNoWriMo (other than padding your WIP’s word count by 50,000) is to write past your inner editor. Those who have completed the challenge claim that somewhere around the middle of week two, the magic happens. I’ve never made it to the middle of week two, so I can’t back up that fact, but this year, I’ve plotted & planned out what I think will be a great story, and I have vowed to do my best to finish what I’ve started.

And just to pour salt in our why-am-I-doing-this wound, some clever person invented NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), where bloggers commit to posting daily for the entire month of November. It was designed to be an easier-to-accomplish alternative to NaNoWriMo for the consistency challenged, but guess what–many masochistic writers have signed up for BOTH challenges. Including me.

I’ve gotta run now. Insanity calls.