NaNoWriMo

Can I do it?

Well, I've just done some quick word counts. I've written approximately 14,000 words on my blog this month. And I wrote a 9,300 word short story last month in four days. The target is 50,000 words.

It's now the 25th (I'm ahead of the timezone that blogspot uses). So by the end of the 30th, I'm asking myself to write approximately 10,000 words per day, assuming I have a non-performing day (probably today).

Reading through the experiences of a few other users, it looks like a really good day, when they've hit their stride, consists of 5,000 words. But I'm assuming that most people have jobs. While I have to spend time looking for work, that is more like a 20+ hour a week activity, as opposed to 40+ hours.

For those of you interested in following the experience further, I've set up a separate blog, named after the first book of poetry I published. I'll double-post this post there, as a starter, and if you could comment on this insane scheme there, it'd be appreciated.

The plan is to take two story ideas I came up with in October, and write them simultaneously, working on one until I run out of ideas or motivation, and then the other. Both have enough 'high-concept' ideas to propel the story forward. It's a matter of ensuring that they're accompanied by captivating characters etc. And, of course, enough words.

For those of you who want to point out that two 25,000 word pieces does not constitute a novel, imagine I'm writing a pulp 'reversible book', which has a front cover either side, and you just turn to the back cover and read the second novel from there (I can't find the technical term for what I'm talking about at the moment - I hope you understand what I mean).

So at this stage, I'm going to say I might be able to make it. Wish me luck.