Ladies and Gentlemen, it
gives me great pleasure to announce that I will NOT be attempting
NaNoWriMo this year. I have attempted it any number of times in years
past, and I never get very far. Which in turn inspires me the next year
to summon up all my grit and determination and say, "THIS year I'm
really gonna do it!" And then I end up not.
So this year, I'm trying a different tack. I'm forgoing the whole thing, not as an act of defeat, but as an act of triumph. I'm not going to attempt to push myself towards an arbitrary deadline, only to feel perpetually overwhelmed and guilty when life prevents me from reaching it. I'm not going to value word count over content, or type a bunch of random nonsense that I know I'll end up cutting later, just to meet today's goal. I'm not going to force myself to keep working on a story that I've lost my passion for. And I'm not going to let a looming deadline and the pressure to put words on a page cause me to lose my passion for a story.
For the record, this is not meant as any kind of slight or offense against my friends who DO do NaNoWriMo. I know there are a whole bunch of you, and I have immense respect for you and what you do. I wish you the best of luck. But now I realize that it's not for me.
Instead, I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing all year. I'm going to work on my own projects in my own time. I'm going to work on what makes me happy, with people who inspire me and help remind me why I'm passionate about what I do. I've done pretty well this year in terms of creative projects. So far, I have...
-Written five short plays
-Shot two short films
-Produced an evening of radio plays
-Acted in several shows and done tech for one
-Taken a trip to the UK. This wasn't a creative endeavor, per se, but it was really cool and a lot of fun, and I felt like bragging about it.
And I've still got several more projects planned before the year is over. So let's do this! Who's with me?
So this year, I'm trying a different tack. I'm forgoing the whole thing, not as an act of defeat, but as an act of triumph. I'm not going to attempt to push myself towards an arbitrary deadline, only to feel perpetually overwhelmed and guilty when life prevents me from reaching it. I'm not going to value word count over content, or type a bunch of random nonsense that I know I'll end up cutting later, just to meet today's goal. I'm not going to force myself to keep working on a story that I've lost my passion for. And I'm not going to let a looming deadline and the pressure to put words on a page cause me to lose my passion for a story.
For the record, this is not meant as any kind of slight or offense against my friends who DO do NaNoWriMo. I know there are a whole bunch of you, and I have immense respect for you and what you do. I wish you the best of luck. But now I realize that it's not for me.
Instead, I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing all year. I'm going to work on my own projects in my own time. I'm going to work on what makes me happy, with people who inspire me and help remind me why I'm passionate about what I do. I've done pretty well this year in terms of creative projects. So far, I have...
-Written five short plays
-Shot two short films
-Produced an evening of radio plays
-Acted in several shows and done tech for one
-Taken a trip to the UK. This wasn't a creative endeavor, per se, but it was really cool and a lot of fun, and I felt like bragging about it.
And I've still got several more projects planned before the year is over. So let's do this! Who's with me?
