Day Four -3300 words behind schedule

I'm famous for taking on more than I can handle.  For example, I took on the 100 Poems challenge back in 2007.  I am still trying to break into double digits in that competition and it's now 2010.  But I clearly do not learn from past mistakes.

So, I am doing NaNaWriMo.

For those of you who do not know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month.  You write 50,000 words, or one novel, in one month.  That averages out to 5000 words every three days. 

The difficulty associated with NANOWRMO is not a lack of ideas.  There are always sites like the Seventh Sanctum Idea Generator that can help with that.  The difficulty is getting the words down on paper.

The finishing prize is pretty mundane for the immensity of the task: winners (people who finish the 50,000 words by Nov. 30 at midnight) get an official "Winner" web badge and a PDF Winner's Certificate.  However, the true prize is getting the novel written.

Right now, I am behind by 3300 words because I had to write a seven to eight page paper on the censorship and controversy around The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Full Web Text) last night.  Yes, I did write a seven page paper in 2 1/2 hours.  Yes, I am regretting the sleep sacrifice I had to make to accomplish this. 

If it wasn't for my senior year's required coursework, I would definitely be ahead on the word count right now.  But as I do have required coursework, I am behind.

Hopefully I'll catch up.  I have two fellow English ladies doing it with me, one of whom is a fellow undergrad and the other a postgrad.  We are trying to keep each other encouraged.

Therein lies the beauty of NaNoWriMo:

"For one month out of the year, we can stew and storm, and make a huge mess of our apartments and drink lots of coffee at odd hours. And we can do all of these things loudly, in front of people. As satisfying as it is to reach deep within yourself and pull out an unexpectedly passable work of art, it is equally (if not more) satisfying to be able to dramatize the process at social gatherings." (Why are you doing this? - NaNoWriMo FAQ)

So I'll give NaNoWriMo a shot, and keep updating about every painful, mind-numbing, strength-sapping day of it.




If you have questions about the NaNoWriMo Challenge, check out their FAQ.

If you feel like following my progress, you can find me here on the NANOWRMO site.

If you're curious about the 100 Poems project, my deviantART journal detailing the challenge and listing my (limited) progress can be found here.