Adventures in NaNoWriMo Land!

National Write A Novel Month starts tomorrow! And I am off to a great start. My kid has puked twice today and I’ve been running a fever off and on since … Tuesday? I can’t even remember anymore.

It doesn’t matter. What matters is NaNoWriMo!  Yay!

Okay. Seriously. There are some people who really feel that way about it. It is a great thing for them on many different levels. Socially, productively, emotionally. Meeting that 50,000 word goal can feel pretty darn good!

But not everyone does so well with it. NaNo is not for everyone. The pressure to write that many words in that short of a time can be overwhelming.

It is for me.

I don’t do well with it. After failing to complete a “novel”  the last two years, I wasn’t going to do it this year. But then, I realized there are a lot of other writers out there who might benefit from seeing how I fail.

You see… As I make my way through my REAL job of taking care of my kids and family, I lose the time I would need to do NaNo.

“But, Sam! That’s the whole point! To prove you can squeeze in a mere 1,666 words per day and write a whole novel by the end of the month!”

Yes, you’re right, of course. But guess what? That is what I am already doing to try to make my career take off! Squeezing all the time I can out of my day for various projects that I hope will move me along. NaNo actually takes away from that for me, and for a lot of other writers who are on deadlines and under contract.

So, for the benefit of everyone who is interested, I plan on giving a (nearly) day by day blow of my activities for the next month. I hope this will help show people who are struggling with that looming word count that they are not alone.

If you sign up for NaNoWriMo, and you want to include me on your “Buddy List”, I can be found at http://nanowrimo.org/participants/sam-knight.

I plan to keep updates on my progress and failure going on my Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSamKnight/

“Progress and failure? Sam, what are you talking about?”

Well… I have things I contractually am obligated to get done, I have things I feel I have to get done for friends and associates, I have things I want to get done, and then, I have NaNo.  And all of that takes place after I clean up the puke.

On an average day, after I take care of family stuff, I get around three and a half hours of time to myself to really get work done (except for the damned telemarketers, which I have to answer because maybe my kid puked at school, too). Any other time I get, is already “squeezed out”, leaving very little for NaNo.

So… Let’s see what happens.

I’ll keep you posted on my Facebook page, and I look forward to hearing your comments on how you are doing.

By the way… I still have no idea what to work on for NaNo. Not a clue. No outline, no research, no idea. No clue.  I’ll figure it out when I start.

Hardcore, baby.