starts with one word…
Because I have 50,000 other things I should be working on…
I’m going to do NANOWRIMO this year and, like 2006, 2008, and 2010, I’ll finish.
I promise! [That’s me talking to me. I’m pretty sure you folks won’t lose sleep over it.]
–I’ll take my own prewriting course over the next few days prior to Nov. 1. Just to see if I know even a nano-iota of what I’m talking about [i.e. stealing from smarter, more experienced writers].
–Plus, a little inner dialogue as I venture ahead…
Critical Me: So, why are you even doing this?
NANO-Me: I need a deadline. I want to do push ahead on a new project. I want an excuse to not look at the clutter in my garage. I have to prove that I can still crank out words, since I promised my wife that a dog would actually make me more productive. [Of course, I wasn’t serious, but it was well worth the good laugh.]
Critical Me: Do you want this to be, eventually, a marketable product?
NANO-Me: Since I’m not great a Round Two Writing, that’s not even on my radar.
Critical Me: Do you have a plan for your story?
NANO-Me: Why yes I do, smarty-pants. In fact, I have a chronology all set up in my mind, a sequence of 180 mini-chapters, if you must know.
Critical Me: And you really think you’ll finish all 180 mini-chapters?
NANO-Me: I mainly want to finish my 50000 words and see which comes first.
Critical Me: What do you like about NANOWRIMO?
NANO-Me: I like the freedom to inject all sorts of detours into a story depending on your mood on a given day. And I like Chris Baty’s No Plot, No Problem book.
Critical Me: What’s so special about that book?
NANO-Me: Well, it’s like this. He’s the guy who started it. And his fly-by-the-seat-of-one’s-pants suggestions are worth the read. And it is just that devil-may-care [am I using too many hyphenated expressions?] approach that inspires me to spend my words like a drunken, well, not Hemingway, because he didn’t waste words…spend my words like a drunken Tolstoy, how’s that?
Critical Me: First of all, yes, you are sucking the well of hyphens dry. Thanks for noticing. Care to share any gems from Baty’s book?
NANO-Me: Sure. I’ll put them at the end of this. I wouldn’t want them drowning in this sea of blather. Time for a break, right?
Critical Me: What for?
NANO-Me: For lunch, that’s what for.
Gem #1 from No Plot? No Problem
“Having an end-date for your quest through the noveling unknown is like bringing along a team of jetpack-wearing, entrepreneurial sherpas. These energetic guides not only make passage easier through the myriad formidable obstacles, but they’ll fly ahead and open coffeeshops and convenience stores along the route.”
Word Inventions 
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