November has been dubbed "National Novel Writing Month" or "NaNoWriMo" for those with too short an attention span to handle full words, in which people will commit to trying to write an entire novel in just thirty days. If you look around a bit, you'll see lots of blogs and LiveJournals tracking the progress made by various writers for the next month. The artificial deadline probably helps at least some inveterate procrastinators to actually sit down and write, though I wonder whether it's really possible to produce a commercially viable first novel this way.
At this time, I would like to publically commit to not writing a novel in the next month. Because, well, I know people who read slush, and I wouldn't want to inflict on them the sort of book I would write while teaching classes, grading papers, and fretting about my tenure case (rumor has it that the external reviewers have submitted their reports, so the process is moving along). Not to mention hosting Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks.
Would I ever consider doing such a thing? Maybe. But damn, November is a bad month for it.
(It's also going to be a lousy month for blogging, which is a shame coming off October's record traffic, but there's nothing I can do about that.)
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You should try it sometime - I did a 'one-month' novel writing project back in March, and managed to finish the story with 10 minutes to spare in the month! It's most helpful as a way to avoid the sort of on-the-spot self criticism that often makes one rework the same sentence for three weeks straight. I don't think the point is to get a novel that is immediately commercially viable after the month - the hope is that once the story is laid out on the page, you can go back and smooth things out later, if you so desire. I did the project more as a challenge to myself.
One definitely gets some rather odd writing out of it, however... when I went back to read my novel again, I found that I had used the word 'funds' three times in the very first sentence...
I agree with g2 - you aren't looking for commercial viability. I've done it twice so far (2003 and 2005).
It's fun. If you have time I'd encourage you to try.
Might you have time for NanoWriMo When I hold it in (I think) March? Nano fiction takes almost no time to write...
I think of November as NaNSFProWriMo....
-Rob
Congratulations. You are very possibly the only person on the internet who is going to actually achieve their NaNoWriMo pledge.
At this time, I would like to publically commit to not writing a novel in the next month.
I haven't declared it publicly, but I've made this same vow every November since I became aware of NaNoWriMo.
I have no desire to be an author. If other people start writing great books after a few forced month novels though, I'm all over that. You can never have too many GOOD books. If this spurs a few people in to becoming the next great author who would otherwise have obsessed over a bad idea for the rest of their lives, keep it going.
Upon telling my father-in-law of this idea, he replied "Is December National Editing Month, then?"