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No to the NaNoWriMo

November 04, 2002 ~ 5:08 p.m.

I thought long and hard about National Novel Writing Month this past weekend. At first, it seemed like the challenge for me. It would test my ability as a writer, and that, I believe, is the whole point behind this month�s designated status. But then I came to the conclusion that I can�t do it � for the following reasons:

� Finishing a novel that�s already half-written would not count. Or, at best, it would be cheating.

� I already have a half-written novel that I�ve ignored for three years, begging to be finished. I plan on doing just that. I have a completion date of February 2005 slated for it (the tenth anniversary of the starting date). So if I�m still struggling to wrap up a story that�s already 150,000 to 200,000 words long, what makes me think that I can start a novel from scratch and finish that in one month?

� From a moral standpoint, would that be fair to the characters I�ve already created? I've put their lives on hold for three years now. Can I continue to ignore their existence while creating and pouring life into other characters? What would give my new characters priority over ones that have been aimlessly hanging around for seven years total now?

� It would steal time away from my presence in Diaryland and I�m not willing to declare a month-long hiatus.

� I have four more installments of my Nice travel journal to write. Then I will be working on a journal about Brussels, where I�ll be spending this upcoming weekend, immediately after that. So I have plenty of tales to tell this month. All non-fictional too, might I add.

I know I have some good ideas for a fresh story. I am confident that a novel could flow from my fingers in hell-for-leather fashion and that I could worry about fact-checking and editing later. But maybe next year I will be able to accomplish the feat. Maybe my current novel will have progressed forward by then. Perhaps I could consider stepping down from this page for a month. Maybe my travels will be a bit lighter come next November.

But as for this year? Forget it. It just won�t be possible.

� M.E.M.

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