Insecure Writers Support Group 2 November 2022

 

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

If you know me, you know that this post stands a good chance of containing heavy profanity and snark. Guess what--it does!

If you aren't an official or unofficial member of the Profanity and Snark Appreciation Society, you are welcome to give this post a miss. 

November 2 question - November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

So, what's going on in the picture at the top of the post?

Well, the pathetic mortal is me, and the big demanding jerk is the Spirit of NaNoWriMo. Or, as I call it, NaNoHellMo. And our conversation is going a little bit something like this.

"You there, Pathetic Human Scribe!" rumbles the voice of the Spirit of NaNoWriMo. "Write me a complete novel in thirty days, or else!"

"Hold up right there, Buttface!" I retort boldly. "You know every time I've tried to write a novel in 30 days it's sucked so much ass that I can't bear to go back and edit it. Well, I refuse to waste my time writing anything suck-ass again, and nothing you can say will make me change my mind."

"So the great C.L. Hart/Lil DeVille/Ornery Owl is actually a pathetic coward," sneers the Spirit of NaNoWriMo. "I knew it all along. Brawk! Brawk! Brawwwwwk!"

"Enough of the chicken dance!" I protest. "My belly ain't yella! I accept your challenge. Now, remind me, how many words do you want in this novel?"

"The requisite number of words is 50,000 and you can't just type 50,000 random words or cut and paste 50,000 words that someone else wrote."

"Perish the thought. So, 50,000 original words. Well, I'll be working with the November PAD (Poem a Day) prompts from Writer's Digest. I'm going to be working on a novelette or novella to submit to Dragon Soul Press. And I'm going to be writing in my crappy journal most days. By the end of the month, I'll have a document with 50,000 original words and some of it will be publishable. Challenge accepted!"

"Wait a minute! That's not how it works!"

"It is when you're a NaNoWriMo Rebel. Which I have been for the past three years, or I would have stopped taking part altogether. Checkmate, Sonofabitch! Now, I'm off to eat some leftover Halloween candy."

My theme song plays and I strut (okay, limp) away smugly, knowing I'm still a legitimate participant in NaNoHellMo, and there ain't nothing the imperious phantom can do about it.

https://youtu.be/0gdLXIM0_uQ

Did you know that there are multiple iterations of NaNoWriMo? There's NaNoHellMo in November and two Camp NaNoWriMos: one in April and one in July. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I greatly prefer Camp NaNoWriMo to regular NaNoWriMo because it's more flexible, but since I've discovered being a NaNoWriMo Rebel, NaNoWriMo is no longer NaNoHellNo. 

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

"My stories, my way."

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

"Owl, what is this mess that blinds mine eyes and scars my sanity"

"Oh, that's the novel I tried to write during NaNoHellMo 2011. Put it down before you suffer permanent ill effects."

"I'm a ghost, Owl. I cannot suffer permanent ill effects."

"You never read one of those novels I tried to write during NaNoWriMos past. They were very, very bad."