November is National Novel Writing Month.

A15

Margaret Patricia Eaton

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

"It was a dark and stormy night." Scratch that "" too clichéd. "It was an extremely dark night and there was a storm approaching from the northeast." Too wordy "" if it was dark, it was dark. And how do I know a storm is approaching? Am I supposed to be clairvoyant? Or a meteorologist? "It was a dark night. The radio had forecast a nor'easter and..." Wait a minute, did the radio itself do the forecasting or should I change this to read, "Earlier I had heard on the radio..." Should I be writing this in the first person or the third person? Who am I anyway? Do I have a morbid obsession with weather reports? What does this say about my character?

I may not be clairvoyant, but I can see that at this rate of self-editing I am not going to have a 50,000 word novel completed by November 30, which when broken down into bite sized chunks means 175 typed pages or approximately 1,670 words a day.

And, quite truthfully, I'm not going to attempt it. But that doesn't mean that other people aren't. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

As they have done for the past 10 years, up to 100,000 aspiring novelists from over 80 countries will be sitting at midnight on November 1, "poised over laptops and pads of paper, fingers itching and minds racing with plots and characters. They'll begin a furious adventure in fiction and by 11:59 p.m. on November 30, tens of thousands of them will be novelists," according to the official website.

It goes on to note, "They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists."

They were the ones with stamina. In 2007, over 100,000 signed up for the challenge, but only 15,363 completed their novels, which are judged on word count.

Apparently quantity, and not quality, is the order of the day. According to the website, "Make no mistake. You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create."

Okay "" so that's what I'm doing wrong, too much tweaking.

"The wind began to pick up, the lights flickered and then there was a knock at the door."

Maybe I can do this after all.

So how can an aspiring novelist get started? Go the official website and sign up at www.nanowrimo.org.

In Fredericton, on Sunday, October 25, organizers Yolanda House and Mary Kuna will be hosting a 'meet n' greet' at Dairy Queen (South Side) at 2 p.m. On October 28, there's an online 'meet n' greet', where "WriMo's" can find a fellow "WriMo" from either Gainesville, Florida or Peoria, Illinois, as those two cities have been partnered with Fredericton. There's also a kick-off party on October 30 and weekly 'write-ins' where participants work on their novels in the company of others, with a Writing Retreat fundraiser planned for Sunday, November 8. So far 10 writers from Fredericton have signed up, but they expect more.

House and Kuna, both librarians, are veterans at this. This is Kuna's eighth year of participation and she has always completed the first draft of 50,000 words.

"It's a lot of fun," she says, "and a way to get things written that I wouldn't accomplish otherwise. I'm not always happy with what I do, but it's a good way to get a first draft written. This year I'm planning to write a young adult novel, as 50,000 words isn't long enough for a full-length serious adult novel."

House has participated three or four times, and while none of the novels have been published, House's memoir "Learning to Leave" was recently published in the anthology "Double Lives, Reinvention & Those We Leave Behind." (Wising Up Press).

In Saint John, UNB student Cass McPhee, is co-ordinating the program and invites interested writers to a 'meet 'n' greet' at Tim Horton's, King Street, at 7 p.m., Friday October 23, with a kick-off party at 7 p.m. at Pizza Hut in Brunswick Square on Friday, October 30. McPhee has participated in past years and has also tried her hand at screen writing in "Script Frenzy."

Moncton's program is coordinated by Missa Brothers and Katie Cooper. Brothers has enjoyed writing since she was in elementary school. She recalls being in grade one and saying, "This is awesome. It's still my favorite thing to do," she says, "and is a huge part of my life. I've been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2006 and my goal is to turn one of these first drafts into a finished piece, with lots of additions and editing work and see it through to publication." You can meet Brothers and Cooper and 15 or more registered writers at Second Cup in Champlain Place on October 27, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Linking up with a community group is helpful but not essential, and those who prefer to go it alone, with a just a pot of black coffee for company, can still log on to the official website.

"At first the knock was timid, just three little taps. I waited. The knocking started again, louder this time, almost insistent. I squinted through the peephole in the door, but I couldn't make out the shadowy figure, although something about the shape seemed familiar. My heart was pounding, my hands were cold and sweaty, I felt faint. What should I do?" 86 words written; only 49,914 more to go and I still don't know who's at the door. And if I don't know, then how is this novel ever going to get past the first page? Margaret Atwood, I'm not! Help!