NaNoWriMo Update

nanowrimo (Photo credit: evilnick)

You may have noticed, after my first burst of enthusiasm, that I went quiet on the subject of NaNoWriMo.  Then again, you may actually have a life.

I signed up for NaNo to settle an argument: the Hub reckons I have a novel in me; I don’t believe I do.  I was prepared to fight fair and give it a real go.  Either way, I’d win: either I had a novel in me, in which case, hooray!  I’d have written a novel; or I wouldn’t, in which case, hooray!  I won an argument.

I won the argument but I couldn’t gloat because the Hub looked so sad.  He’s such a spoil sport.

The bit I have written isn’t very good.  That’s no false modesty: I’ve read enough tripe to know when I’m writing it.  I am a Twihard, after all.

I had intended to have a heroine only – Daisy, deserted by her husband, jobless and searching – but a hero appeared on the scene, name of Jack (a manly name; I made a point of saying so).

Jack was an accidental hero and it was incidental that he happened to be a traffic warden.  While I was still in the throes of writing passion in early November, I envisioned Jack and Daisy in their follow-up novel: Daisy works alongside Jack (it’s the kind of job you’d have to be desperate to take, which she is); they become sleuthing traffic wardens.  I doubt such a pair exist in literature – most writers want readers to like their characters.

I got to about Day 14.  I had about 12,000 words.  I took a couple of days off to do stuff that needed doing…and I never went back.  Every time I thought about sitting down to it, I found something else to do.

For a time the guilt hung over me: I signed up for NaNo; I should see it through; it doesn’t have to be great – it just has to be done.

Then I decided to say, ‘Stuff it!  I don’t want to do it.’ And I stopped feeling guilty.

Writing has always been a joy for me, even essays.  This was the most un-fun I’ve ever had when writing.  I’m not sorry I stopped.  

But I do like the idea of sleuthing traffic wardens.  Maybe I’ll sign up for NaNoWriMo next year and finish the novel.  The Hub is always saying I have a book in me.  It’s about time he won an argument.

Joke 616

These came to me via Pseu, from The Telegraph.

On Monday, John Gurdon won the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. This is an excerpt from his 1949 high school report card. (Photo credit: orangeek)

School reports: the 15 best school reports submitted to the Telegraph letters page

• He has an overdeveloped unawareness.
• This boy does not need a Scripture teacher. He needs a missionary.
• About as energetic as an absentee miner.
• Unlike the poor, Graham is seldom with us.
• The improvement in his handwriting has revealed his inability to spell.
• For this pupil all ages are dark.
• The tropical forests are safe when John enters the woodwork room, for his projects are small and progress is slow.
• Henry Ford once said history is bunk. Yours most certainly is.
• Would be lazy but for absence.
• At least his education hasn’t gone to his head.
• He has given me a new definition of stoicism: he grins and I bear it.
• The stick and carrot must be very much in evidence before this particular donkey decides to exert itself.
• French is a foreign language to Fowler.
• Rugby: Hobbs has useful speed when he runs in the right direction.
• Give him the job and he will finish the tools.