No No to the NaNo?

So, in a fit of misguided enthusiasm, I signed up for the NaNoWriMo. That being, the National Novel writing month. The immediate effect of that was that all inspiration mysteriously dried up. At 445 words, I walked slap bang into a writer’s block so large that it could dwarf Hadrian’s wall. Whither from here? Plug on, as my fellow writers exhort me to. Or abandon all pretence of beginning a novel (let alone completing one)!

Writing to demand has never been my forte. Despite having participated in various competitions, anytime I am given too strict a brief, or a topic not to my taste, I tend to find myself confronting the age old problem of having nothing to say. But the NaNo is not about having a readable novel at the end of the month. It is merely about getting those 50,000 words on paper regardless of whether they make sense or not. The subsequent edits are meant to remedy that. So, why am I not able to produce anything worthwhile?

Perhaps tackling the NaNo is a state of mind, and a state of preparation too. Using the eleven months that precede November to get a semblance of a plot, a structure and the characters in place. Come November, let it spew. That,very obviously, is not happening this year. I will take this as a learning experience though. Observe what my peers do, learn from their mistakes, and try not to beat myself up too much on my perceived failure.

Fortunately, I write as a hobby. Therefore I can allow myself the luxury of time. And of mistakes. I don’t see the NaNoWriMo as a mistake. I see it as something to aspire to. I am not there yet. But I hope I will be, given time….and some rope…