So NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, is almost upon us. I have decided to participate in 2009 and I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about my motivations, previous experience and what I hope to get out of this process.

For me NaNoWriMo 2009 is mostly about cultivating creative habits, about getting into the habit of writing every single day no matter what. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the mood, if I’m inspired or not – I have made a commitment to write every single day.

But as well as that it is about proving to myself that I can write a piece of at least 50,000 words. I have never written anything this large and last year the prospect of such a large project freaked me out and rendered me completely useless.

The project I am going to tackle in November isn’t strictly a novel. It is actually a memoir, and during November my primary concern is about collecting anecedotes that relate to the subject matter of the memoir. I am not going to labour too much about narrative structure, timelines, flashbacks. The goal here is to get the raw information onto the page so that I have something to work with in subsequent revisions.

You can follow my progress on the NaNoWriMo website.
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Are you doing NaNoWriMo in 2009? Is this your first time or are you a seasoned professional? Why are you doing NaNoWriMo? What do you hope to get out of this process?

Leave me a comment – I’d love to hear from you!

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• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 1
• Classroom Community Of Writers
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• NaNoWriMo 2009: Week 2
• Wayson Choy: Your Story Is Absolutely Worth Telling