BCBlog

I originally decided to do NaNoWriMo this year because a friend was considering it. But here it is, late on the 6th, and I haven’t written a single word. I’d jump in and try to catch up, but my friend got a new job and can’t keep up his half of things either.

So with all of the wild happenings at Blogcritics.org these days, I guess I’m putting off the new novel for another year.

Then again, if I could write 1700 words per day, surely I could write 2000 words per weekend and finish the job in less than six months, right?

That’s the theory.

No sooner do I start up the BCBlog than November hits, and with November, NaNoWriMo! Let me back up to explain.

I’ve never been a web designer. I’m not artistic in the visual sense. I know what I like, and I know what looks good (I think), but getting from blank page to what I like is hard. I’m learning, though.

So redesigning a site with more than 30,000 pages, or a weblog with more than 60 new articles every day, is hard. Harder than it looks, I assure you. But it’s especially hard for someone who isn’t normally a web designer! I’m generally happier writing articles, or tweaking database queries, or responding to the 40 new Blogcritics.org-related emails that seem to appear in my email inbox every time I turn around.

Since the redesign was so difficult, I ended up doing things like throwing entire redesigns away. Seriously, this is — I think — the third design that I worked on: the first two just wouldn’t work when I get down to trying to fit in the last few things. This one wouldn’t work with really short posts, that one would work with recent comments, and so on. When I started the third design, I knew I had to set myself a hard-and-fast deadline, or I would never get it done. And so I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, giving myself a deadline of October 31, 2005.

The front page redesign rolled out October 21, and the article pages rolled out October 28, so if we pretend that the “miscellaneous” pages don’t count, I finished with a few days to spare!

I wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo 2002, and quite enjoyed it, but couldn’t seem to spare the time the next two years. I can’t really spare the time this year, either, but I set the deadline, so now I’ve got to follow through.

See, I write novels in my head all the time. I create characters, and if they’re interesting enough, I create an index card with a few notes about them. So I’ve got an index card in my Hipster PDA about “Elvis Preston,” and his story must be told.

I intended to write an outline before November started, but, um, I didn’t. So now I’m starting without an outline, and if I can get 2000 words written today before I fall asleep, maybe I’ll try starting the outline as well.

You’re welcome to start NaNoWriMo, too! Don’t worry if you read about it after the first. I start NaNoWriMo 2002 on November 8 and still managed to finish in time!