November is National Novel Writing Month. I had no idea about this until a number of friends and acquaintances - not to mention my wife - started talking about something called NaNoWriMo, and the challenge it posed. Could you write a 50,000-word novel - or at least get 50,000 words into a novel - in 30 days?

In my case, of course, it was the question of whether I could bang out 50,000 words, plus weekly updates to the rANT Farm, and an update for the Wraith Project on the 5th of December as well. That would be a challenge, and I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to give it a try or not. There's only so many productive hours in the day, after all.

So I figured I'd say "no" and give it a pass. But these sorts of things are infectious and tempting little bastards.

My wife decided to make a go for it, and I kept hearing about what she was going to do, and how excited she was about it. This made me feel like I was missing out on something, and my defenses started to crumble.

That and all the other folks I knew from online who were going to give it a go were talking it up, too. The more I heard, the more I wanted to be in on the gag as well, and the defenses crumbled even further.

And then it happened, just like it always does. By the time the start of the contest was damn near nigh, an idea slipped into my ear, curled around in some warm, moist corner of my brain and started forming a pearl. And the pearl started talking to me, saying "Wriiiiiiite meeeee... you want to wriiiiiite meeeee..."

And, yes, by that point I did. The defenses were now a pile of powdered rubble with two dazed guards stumbling around wondering what the hell had happened. The barbarians were already looting the palace, smashing the royal family and ravishing the furniture. And the potential novel-to-be already had a name, an idea and a general idea of what shape it would take, and where it would go...

So I figured "what the hell." I could only try and give it my best, and see where that went, couldn't I? This wouldn't be the first time I set out on writing The Great Unamerican Novel, and it probably wouldn't be the last, either.

(And maybe this time I'd actually get mostly done before the computer crashed out, like with the unfortunate case of The Queen of Las Vegas, from last year)

So, I henceforth joined the seething throngs of would-be novelists, and started towards the goal. CJ was good enough to compute how many words per day we'd have to crank out in order to hit the goal. If you divide 50K by 30, you wind up with around 1666 - which doesn't sound like a lot until you're in the middle of it.

The writing got an unexpected boost when Sheikh Zayed died on the 2nd of November, as we were put on "holiday" for the mourning period, right up until the 16th. That gave me several days in which I had nothing to do but write, and I alternated between the novel and stuff for the Wraith Project. Eventually, however, the novel look center stage, and I let it have the lion's share of my attention.

That was a little more than 50,000 words ago. I hit the limit on November 29th, had the word count validated on the 30th, and felt damn good immediately thereafter. My respect for people who have to trundle out 50K a month tripled towards the end of the month, and by the end I felt like I'd run a marathon with my fingers.

So how is it? Well, In the process of getting from 0 to the goal, I created a hulking monstrosity that even I wouldn't want to read at this stage. The pieces of what I want are there, amongst the dross, but they're roughly-shaped, and in need of some serious rethinking and cohesion.

(The Prologue is, though I say it myself, pretty darn good, but the rest needs major work.)

But it's always about the journey, and never the finish line. And now that I've had some time to reflect (well, all of 6 days, and that after a whirlwind of writing for the Wraith Project) I think I've learned, and reaffirmed, some of what I know about my writing habits:

* I am a lazy sod. I need the fire under my ass to be equal to the fire in my belly to get it done, because sooner or late the belly starts to sputter and gut out. This is why I have so much unfinished business.

* I am also terribly prone to distraction. The fire is in constant danger of being superseded by another, brighter or more active blaze if I let it sit too long. This is yet another reason why I have so much unfinished business.

* 1666 words is about three pages, and takes between an hour and three hours, depending on whether the inspiration djinn is on your shoulder or out to lunch.

* 1666 words a day doesn't sound like much, until real life intervenes and you have to make up time, or the inspiration djinn has gone to Sharjah for the day.

* Music is good when I'm on a roll, but bad when I'm stuck. Best CD for the novel was early Billy Idol, in the background, and then Lush's "Spooky" when I was in the final stretch. C-Tec and late Billy Idol did not help at all. Listening to new music while writing is also a bad idea, as the process of mental discovery that goes with a new CD sends your writing train of thought off the tracks.

* Writing straight out makes me fast in terms of word count and general progression, but produces bad-to-questionable results.

* Revising as I write makes me slow, but produces good-to-excellent results. This does not, however, get me that far forward in word count or general progression.

* Waiting a day, and then going back over what I had before, and fixing it, aids in perspective, as well as bolstering my daily word count and increasing the chance of having good-to-excellent stuff on the page. However, this does not get me far in my progression, either.

* Keeping a word count, once I cut it up into separate docs, was invaluable. But it also led to me nickel-and-diming it when stuck for inspiration, courtesy of an AWOL djinn.

* I do my best work out in the living room on my wife's old laptop, rather than in my cluttered "office." There's less distraction and I feel more free.

* I don't like to talk that much about what I'm writing for fear of jinxing it, boring people or spending too much fire in explaining things out loud, when I should be putting them on paper (electrons?) instead.

* Self-indulgency is a common failing of mine, as is concept-dropping, inside jokes and thematic/conceptual rip-off. The first is definitely a weakness, but I don't know if the others are benefits or liabilities, yet.

* If I don't get back to the novel soon, it will never be completed. Ever.

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be a contest of sorts. So what did we win? For me, it was the satisfaction of knowing that I was able to do everything I set out to do, writing-wise, that month, coupled with increased self-knowledge, which is a wonderful thing when it's used properly.

I also got a cute LJ icon, and significant progress into something that I may actually complete, for once, but we'll have to see how lasting these things are.