by Anonymoses Hyperlincoln
Well, I actually did it. Finally. After decades of failed attempts. And if you didn't participate in this year's NaNoWriMo...mark your calendar for next November, and start preparing notes.
If you need to take some time off...do it. As claimed, it really is the beauty of the deadline...a lesson I learned to hate while working at a local newspaper, but one which I look back on fondly, when I think about my first novel, and how I crapped it out.
Some people go to school for years in order to get out and work on a a book that may or may not ever get done. Save the years. Take one month and focus your mind. It may suck, but you will know better what to do next time. And the next, and the next. YOU know you can do one every month. 12 a year. After a while, you get good at it. And by the time you have hit your 50th novel...you will be, if not good, at least prolific. But probably pretty good as well.
And it doesn't have to be in the form of a novel. I am planning on some children's books, non-fiction books, political books, and maybe even poetry. But I think I'll stick to the 50k word/month standard, as it also allows time to live life.
I fancy myself as being not only a Renaissance Man, but also a Pre-Cambrian Man.
Yes, I remember some of the lessons I learned prior to shipping off to Cambridge.
I am also Post-Apocalypic Man. Sadly I forgot where I was going with this so maybe I will discuss pie recipes.
But sadly I have no such knowledge either. I could make one up:
Penal Pie
(a favorite of the inmates)
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 broke eggs
1 egg with a few bucks
3 strands of saffron
a thimble of cumin
fresh ginger root
1 cup MD 20-20
1 cup of raisins
3 saltine crackers
1 ice cream sandwich
a Big Buddy
Shake well.
Bake.
So while that's cooking...
Where was I? Oh yes. I had just forgotten what I was going to say.
Well, the condition hasn't improved.
And writing a novel has wonderful effects on the mind, like, like, um, dammit it slipped away again!
I'll leave you with this instead:
Consider your blog posts to be novelfodder. Maybe your narrator is looking over your shoulder, or is your antagonist. You write anyway. Give it a second life.
Maybe it will reward you for your care and efforts.
Happy holidays friends!
