You may or may not know that November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word "novel" in one month. (50,000 words may be a little short for a novel, which is why December is National Novel Finishing Month.) If you finish your 50,000 words, then you can say that you "won" NaNoWriMo and they give you a little banner you can put on your blog or facebook or wherever.
I won NaNoWriMo back in 2006. It was a lot of work, more than I thought it would be, but also a lot of fun. Then in 2007, I had a baby and between that and residency, I decided that participating in NaNoWriMo would be just short of child abuse. More of the same in 2008. I felt bad about it though, because part of the purpose of NaNoWriMo is for busy people to finally force themselves to sit down and write that novel.
Now I'm finished with residency and have more free time, so I'm going to be participating in NaNoWriMo 2009. I think my chances of winning this year are a lot lower than three years ago, but half the fun is trying.
I invite all you mothers in medicine, as well as all you non-mothers not in medicine, to join me in my overly ambitious attempt to write 50,000 words in one month.
That is really cool. Have you gone back and read the novel you wrote?
ReplyDeleteYes, and I finished it during my maternity leave. You'd think it would be horrible since it was basically written in a month, and maybe it was, but it came out exactly the way I wanted it to, which I consider a win.
ReplyDeleteOMDG, you should do it this year. Research is the perfect side job for a project like thisl.
I'm signed up this year already -- under amanda.justice. I've made prior attempts (in 2004 and 2007) so my biggest goal this year is to up my wordcount. Winning would just be total gravy :)
ReplyDelete(From a mom, but not in medicine other than spending time at the pediatrician's office with the offspring, LOL)
this is also a club in many high schools... and some of the kids write WAY over 50,000 words.. last year one of them actually turned out a really cool action book.
ReplyDeleteFizzy - I wanna read it!!! :)
ReplyDelete-T. (Anesthesioboist)
Haha... no, T... I think it will be too horrible to show to any other human beings ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm in! Thanks for the tip, T.!
ReplyDeleteAw F, I SHOULD do the project. Except I should do it on my research proposal rather than on fiction. This year anyway.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of that, power to you! And, let's make sure we all take or make the quality time to listen to >50,000 of our kids' words (and/or actions).
ReplyDeleteOMG this is great! I'm totally going to participate this year :D
ReplyDeleteI did this for the past two years, and am currently working in a creative writing program to try and polish the novel I "won" with during '07. Have already come up with a tentative plot for this year - now, trying to rearrange my life to succeed!
ReplyDeleteA
Artemis, you should email me... we can be writing buddies :)
ReplyDeleteI did this a couple of years ago and would love to be able to do it again. But, I'm not sure with being a full time student (in class 18 hours this semester!) that it would be a very wise idea, so I will wait and hope it's still around next century when I finally finish with school.
ReplyDelete