From Twitter 09-05-2010

• 12:36:18: Can't get the writing going today. I think I used up all my muse juice yesterday
  
• 12:59:15: @Skarrah Good luck! I'm just going for the "write anything and sort it out later" approach at the moment
  
• 13:01:20: Okay, if I write 3500 words today I'll be at 60k. That puts me in pretty good shape for finishing next weekend *panic*
  
• 14:01:38: 787 words down, 2713 to go...
  
• 14:12:06: I shouldn't watch documentaries on sharks. It always upsets me when I hear how many of them we're killing every year
  
• 14:12:41: Apparently more people are killed by falling coconuts each year than by sharks.
  
• 14:14:13: @thetheoryof I'm looking at the Shark Trust website right now. I'm really tempted to adopt a shark
  
• 14:15:21: Let it be known that sharks are awesome and killing them is awful!
  
• 14:18:20: I have changed my profile picture to a manta ray (one of the coolest types of shark) in honour of their awesomness
  
• 15:04:42: God, it's taken me two hours to write 1500 words. Time for a break, I think
  
• 15:09:15: Or... another 300 words gets me to 58k. Then I'll take a break
  
• 19:56:44: Trying to update my website to get all the Static Movement anthologies on there. "Trying" being the operative word...
  

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Nome's Anti-Nano Cult

I am well up for starting cults, all the time.

Anyway. If you're like me, about this time of  year, you start getting excited about Nanowrimo. The writing! The social events! The challenge of writing 50k in a month! It all seems brilliant and so easily done. Just, what? 1666.6666666666666666666667 words a day, and you're totally there! And who can't find time for 1666.6666666666666666666667 words a day, right?

And then you start, and for the first week you're full of enthusiasm and the muse is there with you, and you're powering through and thrashing the word count every day, and you're so totally winning Nano!

And then one of the following things happen:

1. You skip a day for some reason. Maybe you have a headache, or a social engagement you can't avoid. So the next day you have to write double. But you don't manage that, because writing 3332 words is suddenly really hard. And so you fall short and have to write more the next day, and the next, and the next, until finally you'd have to be writing, like, 7000 words a day to make that 50k goal, and we all know how much that isn't going to happen, so you give up and watch cartoons all month instead. Fail.

2. You suddenly realise that everything you're writing is utter tripe. You panic, flail, try to get back on track, but have lost all confidence, so you give up and watch cartoons all month instead. Fail.

3. That old recurrent arm injury flares up and you're in too much pain to even look at a keyboard. You give up and watch cartoons all month instead. Fail.

(You'll notice a theme here. It's failing and cartoons. Cartoons is how I remedy failure.)

Well, screw you, Nano! There are other ways we failures cartoon fans writers can achieve greatness in November! I'm officially gauging interest in an Anti-Nano Cult. If you want all the cameraderie and goal-setting of Nano without the pressure of getting to 50k, come join me. Set your own target and flip the bird at all those smug 50k-ers. Look, I'll be doing it. If you want to join me, leave a comment so I can figure out if it's worth getting properly organised and christening myself a High Priestess, okay?