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....