Are You Prepared to NANO? #nanowrimo

It’s coming down the pike like a flaming bowling ball of despair and agony–NANOWRIMO! The dreaded month of words guaranteed to send every (to use Chuck Wendig’s moniker) Pen Monkey screaming into the treetops.  For those who remain blissfully ignorant of the ruthlessly sadistic reality of Nanowrimo (Nano for those poor mutilated souls left battered and bloody at the end of the month), let me warn you of the impending doom.

National Novel Writing Month, aka Nanowrimo, aka Nano, aka the month that will bring out your inner Hemingway (in the alcoholic sense), is an entire thirty-day span dedicated to guilt tripping writers of every skill level into etching out word after word until they crawl across the finish line with 50,000 words in tow.

A lowly  6.5 pages (if your pages are 250 apiece) or 5.5 pages (if your pages are 300 apiece) a day.

A mere 1667 words per day.

For 30 days.

Straight.

Sound easy?

Yeah, think again. Whichever thrice cursed demon get decided to make the month of face stuffing turkey and the month PRIOR to Christmas as the “perfect” time to wrangle that novel you wanted to finish, should be flogged. With a wet noodle. While standing in a tub of rubbing alcohol. While those dead skin nibbling fish gorge on calloused heels.

As a writer who tries (diligently) to stick to a writing schedule, Nano should be a walk in the park, right?

Wrong!

Every year I swear, up and down, to anyone who’ll listen to my pain filled wails, that I WILL NOT BE DOING NANO.

Every. Freakin’. Year.

And every freakin’ year, I end up doing Nano.

This year is no different. My justification this time is two-fold.

• I don’t want to let down my RWA Chapter team in their writing war competition
• I need the added kick in the pants so I can conquer my deadline for the next Kyn novel

So, are you prepared to wade into the word infested waters of Nano? If so, look me up, and we can both cling to the shattered remains of the Nano Fleet.