On your marks... get set... write!

WeCoNaMo. It’s a thing.

It’s that time of year again, when strings of words are shortened to new conglomerations of letters that mean little to those not in the know. They are the Brangelina, Tomkat or Shamy of the writing and illustration business.

I came across these a year ago – I’d handed in my last university assignment for the year, and suddenly felt like I had a stack of free time. November is fast becoming known (to me at least, and hopefully the world if it catches on) as WeCoNaMo. And what, pray tell, is WeCoNaMo, I hear you ask? Weird Conglomeration Name Month. And here’s why:

I'm still here...

I admit it – I have been a slack blogger.

 

A slogger? Or a slagger? Okay – not a slagger.

At my writers' group meeting last night the topic of updating blogs came up – and it reminded me I’ve been just slightly remiss. The fact that one of my unofficial writing goals for this year was to update my blog weekly and I haven’t done it for – 10 weeks! How did that happen?! – was the cause of much amusement.

Eurovision weekend had nothing to do with it, I swear.

Frankenstein's monster meets Bridget Jones

That's what I feel like at the moment, as I type, arms outstretched, neck stiff, eyes staring forward.

The neck brace I'll be wearing for the next five weeks has robbed me of peripheral vision, and also the ability to look down easily. I eat with the plate pushed halfway across the table, as my laptop is now, so I can see what I'm doing.

One step forwards...

..two steps backwards

 

I'm way behind on my NaNoWriMo word count target. The official website mentions the week two doldrums, and I'm definitely a victim. And I don't even want to think about PiBoIdMo – I've had some picture book ideas, but the motivation to write them down on paper is at about 'meh' level.

The little darlings are so loving and peaceful
when they're not trying to subvert the creative process.

 

Part of the reason my motivation has faltered is that my NaNoWriMo word count went down instead of up. How? I decided to split one chapter into two, copied and pasted, then forgot to delete the duplicate text. So what seemed to be a particularly productive writing session was followed the next day by one in which I literally – and literaturely – went backwards.

 

Mad month

November is going to be a crazy month.

I've signed up to tackle NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The aim is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words during November. Plots, outlines and characters can be created beforehand, but the actually penning, or typing, of the text must take place in November.

At last check, more that 173,000 writers across the world had signed up. That's a lot of words, coffees, late nights and tortured creative types. So if a writer you know seems particularly stressed in November, cut them a bit of slack.