You’re going to do WHATthehell?

NaNoWriMo is all about producing. You don’t have to do well, you don’t even have to do badly. You just have to do. If you manage 50,000 words in a month, you win. The book can suck, be unfinished, need to have 35,000 words cut from it…but have 50,000 and it’s a win.

I see something there for me. Obviously.

This year the world is not ending. I am not trying to move out from a marriage I can’t quit, as I was last time I tried this. My life is, more or less, in order. When NaNoWriMo starts, we will have just completed our month without paychecks, so our money problems will be back in hand. And I have Neo, my trusty keyboard, to travel with me everywhere and be ready to take down a quick few dozen words at any time. I should, in short, be able to do this.

If I will.

I think I will.

I am now trying to decide whether to continue to write on Feel For Death, the novel I’ve been slogging at for 15 months (and effectively cheat, since you’re supposed to start a fresh novel for the month), or set it aside for a month and write one of the others I’ve got in my head.

I’m sort of leaning toward a fresh story. This one has already provoked interest from editors and agents, but I’ve got my ego and emotions all tied up in it, and I know that will screw me up. Has been screwing me up. On the other hand, if I succeed in Just Writing, without concern for value of the writing, I will be very nearly done with my draft of the novel.

If (back on the first hand, now) I can succeed in getting out of my way on something that’s so tied up around my spinal cord.

So, Brain Trust, I put it to you; new novel for a month, losing a month of work on the current one, or risk failure due to my hangups over the current book?

For now, I’ve some more words to put into the current one. Excuse me.

EDIT: I think I know what I’m going to do. I think I’ll be playing the NaNoWriMo game straight; start something new and type like hell on it. I don’t know exactly why that’s the best idea, but it smells right to me. That doesn’t mean I’m ditching Feel For Death; in fact, I’m treating that as training up for November, which is training for writing in general and FFD in particular.

And, I may change my mind without warning, but probably not.

Crossposted from Epinepherine & Sophistry