The First of November
A better Catholic blogger than myself would take this opportunity to blog about the saints.
November first, after all, is All Saints' Day. A day that, for many of us, signals the beginning of the holiday season. A day that sees many more of us frantically scanning our parish websites, trying to find out if All Saints' is a holy day of obligation in our particular diocese or not. This is assuming we can remember what diocese we live in, after the sugar shock hangover of Halloween.
And in fact the better sort of Catholic bloggers are all writing about the saints today. Check out The Anchoress, or Happy Catholic, or Julie over at Conversion Diary. Those dames know how to do it.
As for me, November First is a day of reckoning. The day when I examine my life and conclude, Sooner or later, Desperate, you're gonna have to quit watching the funny dog videos on YouTube and sign up for NaNoWriMo.
Which, and I am trembling as I write this, I just did.
Yes, it's National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo, and that's the last time I capitalize those initials. Nanowrimo, the challenge to writers al over he world to produce a complete novel by the end of the month.
Some writers plan ahead. They have a plot outlined and everything, and they just blast through with their first draft. This, to my mind, is cheating. I think all Nanowrimo-ers should be like me, clueless and optimistic, with just a dash of panic thrown in. Fairly sure this effort will not do a damn thing for our careers. Well, okay, there's the wild hope, but it's a wild one.
But what the heck, right? A novel in a month. Why not? Hiroshima was destroyed in like an hour, right? Give me a month and I promise to do the same for the English language and all its rich literary tradition.
Wish me luck, reader.
November first, after all, is All Saints' Day. A day that, for many of us, signals the beginning of the holiday season. A day that sees many more of us frantically scanning our parish websites, trying to find out if All Saints' is a holy day of obligation in our particular diocese or not. This is assuming we can remember what diocese we live in, after the sugar shock hangover of Halloween.
And in fact the better sort of Catholic bloggers are all writing about the saints today. Check out The Anchoress, or Happy Catholic, or Julie over at Conversion Diary. Those dames know how to do it.
As for me, November First is a day of reckoning. The day when I examine my life and conclude, Sooner or later, Desperate, you're gonna have to quit watching the funny dog videos on YouTube and sign up for NaNoWriMo.
Which, and I am trembling as I write this, I just did.
Yes, it's National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo, and that's the last time I capitalize those initials. Nanowrimo, the challenge to writers al over he world to produce a complete novel by the end of the month.
Some writers plan ahead. They have a plot outlined and everything, and they just blast through with their first draft. This, to my mind, is cheating. I think all Nanowrimo-ers should be like me, clueless and optimistic, with just a dash of panic thrown in. Fairly sure this effort will not do a damn thing for our careers. Well, okay, there's the wild hope, but it's a wild one.
But what the heck, right? A novel in a month. Why not? Hiroshima was destroyed in like an hour, right? Give me a month and I promise to do the same for the English language and all its rich literary tradition.
Wish me luck, reader.
Write, write, write!
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, first draft is just to get it down on paper/pixel. Rewrites are for making it good. And indeed, even for correcting typos. :)