Say what

A good citizen writer will put down her pen for a noodle pudding. You know what, NaNoWriMo? Keep sending me stupid “pep talks” like that and I am not participating in your event again. I mean, what does that even MEAN? Good citizens eat noodle pudding? Don’t they get a choice of what to eat? What’s so great about noodle puddings?!

NaNoWriMo 2008

Early in October, I mentioned in an entry here that I was participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. For those who missed that entry, NaNoWriMo is an annual event in which thousands of people, all over the world, buckle down and write a 50,000 word novel over the course of November. I’ve participated every year since 2005, and today I notched up my third victory.

It’s been more difficult than the past three years¹, because I’ve had a lot of other things to do. Preparation for my International Studies exam was always going to take precedence, for example. I barely wrote at all during the school week — only a couple of hundred words here and there — because school took up a lot of my time. The only reason I’ve been able to win this year at all is because I wrote 20,000 words in the first four days of the event². I did so deliberately, to ensure that I could neglect writing for a couple of weeks without losing. And hey, it paid off, didn’t it?

So today I crossed the 50,000 word mark, and it seems as good a place as any to stop and explain what I’m writing.

NaNoWriMo approaches!

NaNoWriMo is an annual event in which, over the course of November, people all over the world buckle down and try to write a 50,000 novel (or novella, really). I’ve been a participant in this event every year since 2005, winning twice and losing once. (Damn sophomore slump!) Perhaps it goes without saying that I’m planning to participate again this year.

I never doubted that I was going to participate this year. I contemplated taking a year off for year twelve — since, you know, I’ll have five exams that November and all — but this year? I’ve only got one year twelve exam, and eternally optimistic as I am, I figure it can’t be too arduous to study for. Not arduous enough to preclude me from writing a novel, at any rate. In fact, writing a novel might even be beneficial — I’ll get to take a break from studying once in a while and return much refreshed. Right?