NaNoWriMo Looms Just Ahead...

This will be the fifth year I've attempted NaNoWriMo. Here's my track record so far:

2002: Eden - roughly 14,000 words
2003: Eden - 31,136 words
2004: "Gulag", "Ectoplasm", "Immortality", "Mister Carter" - roughly 10,000 words
2005: The Wheatyard Chronicles - 32,068 words

Clearly, I have yet to come anywhere near the 50,000 word goal. Which is fine with me -- I'd much rather finish November with some worthwhile prose, and with my sanity and domestic tranquility intact, than attain some arbitrary word count. I've found NaNoWriMo to be a useful exercise in writerly motivation, but I haven't allowed it to become an all-consuming obsession like many of the participants. This year's novel bears the working title "Forever." More details to follow as they develop.

Sometime next week, Donavan Hall (publisher of The Angler, where I'm associate editor) will be podcasting an interview he conducted with me last night, in which I relate some of my NaNoWriMo history as well as the (now refuted) reasons I considered not participating this year.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, NaNoWriMo neophyte James Tata pens two thoughtful pieces (1, 2) that express very well the excitement and fear facing anyone looking to try this for the first time.