Less than one week until NaNoWriMo 2011 begins. Am I panicking?
Yes.
This will be my fourth nano in a row. I haven’t won yet, although I got pretty close in 2008 and 2009 (I completely tanked last year). I’m still undecided on this year’s project. I’m considering tackling a fantasy story that’s been in my head for about a decade, but I’d also like to scrap last year’s attempt and rewrite it. Both ideas are appealing in their own way, and both have fairly well-developed plots that can get me to and beyond 50,000 words.
I’m panicking because I like to have my writing ventures planned out ahead of time. I like to get the Halloween and be frothing at the mouth to start writing. I like to know where I’ll be writing, what I’ll be writing, when I can get peace and quiet…
And at the moment, I have nothing much besides the “frothing at the mouth” part. This will be my first nano as a working professional, and I don’t have any of the security I did as a student — no guaranteed quiet time or space, no dining hall for a quick meal I don’t have to prepare, and no network of 1,000 other local students all doing the same thing.
I have to write without my safety net.
Perhaps this is what nano is really all about. I’ll certainly find out!
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