It's about this time of year that I remember I have a blog. Where I'll make a post about how I have an idea for a novel, and that I'm going to try NaNo. I'd say something about how hard it will be, how I have class, life, etc. The normal reasons tons of people attempt NaNo and fail, or commit and "win." These things are true every year for most people. It's part of the reason it's in November, afterall. I could try NaNo again. Get to about 16,000 words and get busy, or have my story peter out on me, or get tired of feeling guilty that I'm not writing my 1,667 words per day and just stop.
This semester isn't particularly difficult for me. I'm only in two classes. My only homework is writing. I could attempt NaNo this year and likely do very well. But I don't want to. I have tried...5 years in a row, maybe six. I have at least four novels with very generous starts. Four novels that I am immensely interested in finishing. I did "win" one year, which tells me that I could do it. I could buckle down and write. But that year also showed me that I didn't produce anything I wanted to look at again. The novels with generous starts are actually only ideas that I'll end up having to revise. NaNo gets me writing, which is excellent. But I'm at a point where I don't need the impetus of November to get myself writing. I need to be writing every day (which I am, mostly).
The prospect of starting another novel doesn't interest me. I'd much rather go back to any one of the several pieces that I've started, that have been sitting in my scrivener folder, in my dropbox, on my desktop, and look at those. It's something I've traditionally been very bad at. Going back to my old stuff, reading, revising, editing. So instead of attempting 50,000 words of something new, I'm going to continue to write things for the creative writing class I'm in. I'm going to build a portfolio to use for my applications to an MFA program (which is coming up here within the next 6 months). I'm going to go back to a novel or two and take notes on what I like, what I didn't. I might distribute them to friends, get their input, and push forward on an idea or two. I'm going to go back to some of the short stories I've written and revise and edit. I'm going to send some stuff out for publication. Get some rejections, maybe get accepted. Who knows.
I love that I've attempted NaNo so many times. I learned, and continue to learn, more about my writing only through, you know, writing. The most important thing is to put something on paper. To actually write. But I do that pretty regularly now. I need to focus on finishing, polishing, and submitting. I think NaNo is great for aspiring writers. It's great for me since I work best with a deadline. But I'm going to try something different this year. Focus on existing content and getting that readable rather than producing any amount of words of questionable quality that will take time away from the questionable quality I've already written.
Michael Ferguson
