Is NaNoWriMo necessary?

I didn't make my quota yesterday, because I was called in to teach, then went food shopping with my mother at night.  I don't know that NaNoWriMo is the best way to write a book.  It certainly isn't the only way.

If it works for you--good.  I see that even if I bashed out a "novel" or rough draft in one month, I still would need to spend the next 10-11 months rewriting, editing, and polishing it.

Reading to Write

Right now I'm reading Oedipus Rex and tomorrow is The Metamorphosis.  Both of these were required reading in my college world literature course.  Both can be read in one day.  Neither of them is as easy reading as an article in People Magazine say.
The neat thing about reading the classics is that it can help you to look at your own writing in a new light.  If you run out of things to write about, set Hamlet in New York City or the midwest.  Hamlet himself probably came from the myth of Orestia.

NaNoWriMo

All right.  I'm trying NaNoWriMo.  It will only be a month, then I can spend the next 10-11 months editing what I have written.  It really should be called. NaRoDraWriMo for National Rough Draft Writing Month.
I am going to be more faithful in these blog posts.  I think I'm over the hump of my creativity.  It doesn't help that my computer has lost internet connectivity after a brief power outage 10 days ago.  I can still use the internet at the library every day except Sunday.
The working title of my novel is The Repeat:  or Mr. Maxwell's Metamorphosis.

Writer's Block

I think I can no longer work on my works of fiction.  Not that they're that great or sought after anyhow.

ADD and Writing

I think the reason I have so many projects in the air right now is because of my Attention Deficit Disorder.  I start one project then another.

If I can just write 200 words or less each day for each project, I will have them done soon.

Unreading Writers

I'm amazed at how many people are reading this blog--especially compared to the small numbers reading my blovel or web fiction.

All I can figure is that more people want to write the "Great American Novel" (whatever that animal is) than read it.

Not me.  I have always found reading much easier than writing--except when I try to bone up on my Spanish by reading books in that language.  Ficciones de Jorge Luis Borges.  For example.

My problem is, although I have a lot of free time, I wind up reading so much more than I do writing that I don't get much done.  At least not as much as I would like to.  Stephen King recommends at least a few hours of reading per day along with I can't remember how many words.  1000 I think; half what he does himself.

Juggling Act

In addition to the serial novel I'm publishing on pandamian at SirenSong.pandamian.com, I have gone back to a blovel I was working on called Travels by Unicorn.  One should be about 25,000-30,000 words at 1000 words per chapter.  The other will be perhaps 150-200 words per post and 40 posts or "chapters" long.  If you have less time and want to follow one of these projects, the Travels by Unicorn one will be more up your alley, being less than 8,000 words long or a long story rather than a true novel.

Sirensong, if it comes out in print will be a paperback printed in a limited edition of maybe 10 copies for family and friends.  No ISBN number necessary.  Travels by Unicorn will be in chapbook form.

I also plan on adding 10 flash fictions to Travels by Unicorn in order to "pad" it.  Blogger.com allows 10 stand alone pages, so I intend to use them.

Now comes the hard part:  figuring out my writing schedule....

Because I am Crazy

Why am I working on two pieces of fiction at once plus this blogsite?  Good question.

I remember a theater class I took once.  The professor, an older actor, talked about what a rough life it was acting and how there was little money in it, when you got down to the facts.  (Hollywood stars are the lottery winners of the acting gig.)

I raised my hand and asked him why he chose to act.  "Because," he patiently explained, "I'm crazy."

Why am I doing this when there is practically no money and a lot of hard work involved?  Because I'm crazy.  And I probably have ADD too.  :)

Pandamian

Yesterday I discovered a new website where you can publish your ebooks without a great deal of trouble.  I published the first chapter of my novel online at sirensong.pandamian.com.  I may also try blovelspot as well.  If I do, I will be sure to let my followers here know about it.  I am not sure what money if any I will make, but that isn't my primary goal as a writer.

Why Write?

Writing seems so pointless.  Probably no one will want to read it anyhow.  I am merely writing this blog post from force of habit.

I keep trying to figure out what to do with my life.  I have ideas, but unfortunately none of them are truly original.  Why even bother?

Another day's work--at night

I know I should work at the same time each day.  But I have been so tired lately; I think I may have diabetes.  I got up late this morning and had to hurry to a meeting.  *Sigh.*

I just now completed the required two pages.

The way I see it, is I am no Stephen King.  He probably would write better if he were less forcedly prolific, though we have no way of knowing.  Not that I am trying to be critical of him--his works and their commercial success speak for themselves.  Nevertheless, I will not try to write as much as he does for the following reasons:

1. If I write 3000 words a day, and I suppose I could, I would have a rough draft by October 10.  Then all I would have to do is rewrite the things 20 times.  Whereas if I write 500 words a day, I will only have to write it twice.  So what's the point to hurrying through my rough draft.
2. I wish to create something enduring, that future generations, if they exist, may look at and learn from and feel inspired by.  Grinding out book after book isn't what Tolstoy, Flaubert, or Henry James did.  Even Charles Dickens only averaged one book a year.
3. I prefer quality over quantity.  As King himself said in his memoir, he doesn't do it for the money.  There is no good reason, aside from more money to churn out 3-4 books per year.  As far as some writer's go, they have a neurological need to write that many.  Alice Flaherty address it in The Midnight Disease.  I have nothing to say to writers like that, except if you can write 4 novels a year and not sacrifice quality, more power to you!  Most of us can't.

Rough Draft in Six Months

On this day of national tragedy, I happen to have been born 27 years ago.  I turned 28 when it happened.  You do the math and guess how old it is.

This also can be looked at as the birthday of my book.  I am not even attempting to blog this novel.  I'm trying the method of not telling too much about the novel itself to anyone else until I have finished the rough draft; then I will have at least one or two good friends help me edit it.

I plan, Lord willing, to write two pages a day for the next 180 days or 500 words minimum.  At the end of less than six months, I will have a full rough draft of 90,000 words or 360 double-spaced pages.

The title to my new novel for now is SirenSong.  I intend to write it as a sci-fi romance.  I may divulge more details in this blog as I progress with the drafting.  It all depends on whether or not it helps me at my writing.