This November I decided to take on the challenge of trying to write a novel. It was called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, but since a company made an official website to help track progress got sponsorship from A.I. programs and doubled-down on their support of it I’ve decided to simply call it the “November Novel” because fuck A.I. and everything to do with it.
Anyway.
I got a late start to my November Novel since I spent the first three days of November at Rhode Island Comic Con. When I returned I sat down and started writing something, anything, and a loose idea began to form. I had no idea what this was going to be about or what direction it was going to go, but I wanted to get into the habit of putting something, anything, into my word count.
The good news is that I’ve been greatly enjoying myself!
The bad news is that I’m way behind where I “should” be and will likely not reach the traditional word count to have completed a November Novel.
Three things have served as my major delays. First there was Rhode Island Comic Con. Then there was the gut-punch of the election, which happened only shortly after I officially began. And then there was a day I just wasn’t feeling the writing process, so I took a day off from it, only to be followed by the distractions of a family visitation and a busy weekend.
The traditional word count to have completed a November Novel is approximately 50K words. As of this writing, mine is at 15K words. It’s not bad by any means for a first attempt, and I’m happy with what I’ve put down so far, but unless I hit some kind of overdrive I don’t think I’m going to write another 35K words in this second half of November, especially with Thanksgiving on the horizon.
Despite that, I’m going to see this through to the end of the month. Whether or not I hit 50K words is beside the point. The real point of trying to write a November Novel is the act itself, in dedicating time to a creative outlet outside my usual medium of comics, and to see where my imagination goes when it’s got a blank slate to work with.
Will I let anyone read this when it’s done? That’s a consideration for another day.