Auntie B's Wax

It’s not that hard to get a book published these days.  With self-publishing you don’t even need those pesky editors and publishers, not to mention agents.  I won’t go so far as to say this is a good thing because I’m one of those people who wants to read good books.  I have a little predjudice in that I figure if someone has to go through all the red tape of getting a book published (those pesky editors, publishers, and agents) the book must be good.  Not necessarily so.  It’s also not necessarily so that a self-published book is a bad one.

The bottom line isn’t about who publishes a book though, it’s about who writes it.  The hard part isn’t getting it published, it’s getting it written, or at least that’s what I believe.  I would bet a great majority of people have at least once in their lives fantasized about writing a book.  Picture it, sitting at an isolated mountain retreat with your laptop and a never-ending pot of coffee, typing away at The Great American Novel.  You can totally see yourself doing it.  The thing is, you need a plot, characters, and a beginning, middle, and end of a story.  That’s hard.

The people over at NaNoWriMo are here to help.  November is National Novel Writing Month and dozens (if not hundreds, nay thousands) of people join the challenge to write a 50,000-word novella in the span of thirty days.  It’s a blast, and if you register at NaNoWriMo you can commiserate and celebrate with your fellow novelists.  You don’t even need to be at a mountain retreat to do it!

I’m going to give it a shot again this year.  I completed a “novel” a couple of years ago and it stunk.  But I did it and I’m proud of the discipline I had.  Don’t try to find me on the NaNoWriMo site because like most good novelists I’m going to have a pseudonym.  Probably something like John Smith.  I’m even going to open up a new (and private) blog for storage of my literary work of art.

I know a couple of you out there who could whip out 50,000 words without a problem.  Quit making excuses ~ it requires less than 1700 words a day.  This post alone has over 350 words and it took me less than 20 minutes to write them.

Join me this coming Tuesday for the big kick-off.  NaNoWriMo will be glad to have you, and the world will be glad to have your novel.  NaNoWriMo begins November 1st.  As Nike says, “just do it!”

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