What Will You Be Doing Next Month?

I had been planning to take part in National Novel Writing Month again in November until I volunteered to serve on one of the committees for the Cybils. I'm not sure when the reading period starts for that or what I'll have to do, but I'll have to do it in a specific amount of time.

Maybe I'll be able to do both.

I haven't been seeing as much excitement for NaNoWriMo this year as I have in the past, though that might be because I stopped going to Readerville at the beginning of August in an attempt to free up more time to waste at other spots on the Web. I also saw a disparaging comment somewhere a while back about attempting to write a book in a month that I felt had to be directed toward NaNoWriMo.

Of course, it's true that it's unrealistic to expect to write a book in a month. But I enjoy the intensity involved in any kind of short-term, all-out endeavor, whether it's NaNoWriMo, the Cybils, or the 48 Hour Book Challenge. I enjoy going hell-bent for leather at one particular thing and letting everything else fall by the wayside while I'm at it.

If only I could do that with my work on a regular basis.

I'm planning to work on essays again this year during NaNoWriMo instead of a novel. One of the essays I started during last year's NaNoWriMo was published at VerbSap, which is certainly encouraging, and another that I finally finished late in the summer is being considered for publication. I mean, seriously. The creative nonfiction editor contacted me to apologize for the delay and to say that she was torn between my essay and another. So, again, I'm encouraged.

To prepare myself for my marathon, I started reading a book called The Writer's Presence, which I grabbed from a young relative who used it in a college class. He disliked the thing, but I found some useful stuff in the introduction. Unfortunately, I got side-tracked helping with flapcopy for next year's book and trying to finish and perfect a short story so I could send it out.

Anyway, I am getting psyched for November. Just knowing I'm going to be plunged into at least one (NaNoWriMo), possibly two (the Cybils) massive projects is helping me to focus the rest of my life just to get ready.

Clearly, I should be doing this kind of thing a lot more often.