Comments on: The Confession

By: booksquare

booksquare — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 05:00:49 +0000

It does appear that November is the cruelest month…especially if you’re the one who gets to slave over a hot stove, cold countertop, and lukewarm familial relationships. I totally agree with the energy sapping aspect of the month. It took a full weekend to recover, and this was a relatively low trauma holiday.

TEV – I wouldn’t call your NaNo experiment a failure. Perhaps more bad timing, if anything. And you’ve had other successes this year, successes that eclipse stalling out at 5200 words.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 21:04:09 +0000

See, I’ve always thought November was a semi-crappy month for NaNo. Not only is there the Thanksgiving family trauma for four days, holiday season comes next and totally saps your energy to continue writing.
Why can’t it go back to being during the summer? August is a dull month with no holidays! Or July, perhaps?

By: tvk

tvk — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 19:20:55 +0000

Pardon me while I go all uber-feminist, but I have to wonder how many men fail at NaNo because they’re stuck in the kitchen for a day and a half, minimum. Had any of the males in MY family participated in NaNo, none would have had this excuse for failure. Tryptophan coma, yes. “Too busy preparing and cleaning up turkey and fixin’s to write?” No way.

Yeah, as much as I appreciate the whole NaNo set-up, you can tell it was created by a man by how close its deadline falls to a major holiday involving significant domestic effort.

By: booksquare

booksquare — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 18:10:01 +0000

Yes, of course, why didn’t I see it before? It wasn’t me, it was a prematurely short month. After all, any month with less than 31 days is unfair. And if that month has a four-day weekend plus other holidays, it simply should not count.

But the good news is I’m back in a routine (do we ever grow up from our kindergarten selves?) and remembering why I was excited about this story to begin with.

By: TEV

TEV — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 18:08:36 +0000

Hear, hear! Well done – not a failure by any stretch. Consider that my ill-fated attempt last year netted me exactly 5,216 words before I tanked. Now that is failure on a grand scale …

By: Susan Gable

Susan Gable — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:53:48 +0000

I don’t think you failed at all. You now have 40,000 words that you didn’t have at the beginning of November. That’s wonderful! So you didn’t hit 50K. You still did great, and got yourself back into the groove, back into the habit of writing and producing, and that’s important.

I agree that November, with its major holiday, is not the best choice for NaNo. I mean, the turkey alone induces sleeping, not writing. (G)

Even January would be better. There’s that whole “start the year off right” thing in January, too. And, as Brenda points out, it’s a month with 31 days. Hey, choose a month with the max number of days for this task!

Well done! I’m proud of your 40,000 words!

By: Brenda Coulter

Brenda Coulter — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 12:45:03 +0000

May I have a do-over on that post? I hit “send” before my first sip of coffee.

You’re right that this project should not be undertaken in a month involving a major holiday in which people are compelled to spend great quantities of time cooking, eating, and talking about how much they have cooked and eaten. Also unreasonable is holding this event in a month which has less than 31 days.

You could’ve done it in October. I know you could’ve.

Yeah. I’m awake now.