JoNoWriMo

Some of you have probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), an internet event that has spiraled well beyond its original bounds and now tackles such good causes as young writer's programs and whatnot. The core of the concept, though, is that you write a draft of a novel. In one month. The organization defines a draft as 50,000 words, and their infrastructure is set up to help you track your progress towards that goal. Just get it on the (virtual) page and revise it later.

The problem is that National Novel Writing Month is in November.

November's probably a good time for it—summer's done and, at least in temperate northern climates, the weather's pushing folks to be indoors. The holidays haven't started yet (despite retails marketing programs to the contrary). Days are getting pretty short, and what better way to while away the increasingly dark evenings than sitting at your word processor of choice, fingers clicking away?

Aside from including my birthday, though, November's not a particularly attractive time to undertake major writing projects for me. If my life goes according to plan (and "according to plan" always entails a rather sizable 'if'), November will pretty much always be the end of midterms and the turn towards finals for me. Being on the delivering end of finals and midterms will not change the fact that they're work.

Thus, I proclaim that July will be my Novel Writing Month. Beginning tomorrow, I will undertake to produce at least 50,000 words of progress on Against the Moon (working title), which I began quite some time ago but haven't been able to get much done on between school and fatherhood. We'll see how it goes. Like as not I'll stumble, but even if I only end up with twenty or thirty thousand words, they will be words I would not otherwise have.

Excelsior!