50,000 Words
Every November since 1999, the non-profit organisation NaNoWriMo set a challenge: write a 50,000 word novel in one month.
50,000 words might not sound a lot, but it's about the length of The Great Gatsby. Averaged out daily, that comes to about 1,667 words a day.
Since then, thousands of people have signed up and met their goals. Last year alone, 51,670 writers met their goals. It got so popular, a spin off was launched in April and July by their Young Writers Program, Camp NaNo. Less strict, it allows you to set your own goal and work on whatever creative writing project you want. Poetry, short stories, essays.
Or a blog.
For a little while now, I've felt a little bit in limbo on the blog. I enjoy it, but it feels a little bit like I'm treading water. On a good week, I'll have the post written and planned before hand, but I'd say half the time I have a general ideal and I crank it out hurriedly on a Sunday to post.
And that's ok. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. But recently I've been feeling the Itch, and it can no longer be salved with the balm of Just Ok. It demands to be felt, demands to be actioned on. So I need a challenge. Something to really dig into it and get below the surface.
Something like writing 50,000 words in 30 days.
That's half the reason. The other half wanting to see if this is something I can do, or if I'm daydreaming and need to come back to Earth. Not whether I can write, but whether or not I can commit myself to the task and make something of it.
Like many people, especially one's who grew up as readers, I've long had the idea that I could make writing a career if I could just get everything else out of the way. Work, health, depression, although those things that eat up the bulk of my day and affect my energy and mindset for the rest.
Well, time to jump that first hurdle.
So, here's the plan.
Through the month of April, I'm going to be posting daily. Every day by 11:59pm UK time, I am going to publish something. A blog post, a poem, a short story, an essay, a steam of consciousness, something, anything.
Three rules:
- The post must be new. Topic ideas are fine, but anything part written or researched is a no. This allows for Reorganising Everything to finally be finished, as they're non-started topic ideas, but not the two or three half written posts sitting waiting for me to workshop them.
- Nothing topical. Writing about the latest internet buzz,. political scandal, or celebrity bullcrap feels a bit too easy. Almost like cheating. On that:
- No cheating. No padding out the word count to make it 'easier'. Harder to police from reading, but I'm more than aware of the intent behind the words.
The sum total of these posts will hit at least the 50,000 words mark. That's counting everything in the body of the post; titles, 'please subscribe', and footnotes won't count. I'll keep a count at the end of the post and on the homepage to keep me honest.
The other part of the challenge is arguably the harder part. No checking analytics through this process. Not views, not readers, not the number of toasts a post got. Nothing. I will review it later to see if anything in particular worked (although still don't think anything will quite hit the as fat as Homer Simpson post for while), but during the month it's just going to be a distraction and could end up being disheartening.
I'll have a word count and running total at the end of each post, as well as on the home page. For clarity, I'll be counting every word in the body of the post; links, footnotes, and headings will not count. My emails will turn to daily short ones to save you getting a seven post summary at the end of every week. If it gets too much, please feel free to unsubscribe. I get it, it's cool.
But hopefully you'll stick along for the ride, and then some.
Have a great Sunday.
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