Inspired by National Novel Writing Month, I have pledged to write a 50,000-word novel in January 2002. Tentative title: "Great America Parkway: A Tale of To-Day."

CONTACT

ARCHIVES

CHAPTER TITLES
1. Tie Goes to the Runner
2. Heir Conditioning
3. Transitions
4. First Daze
5. Field Trip
6. Strata
7. Foul Odors in Gilroy
8. Dolce
9. Jinx and Anti-jinx
10. Savings
11. ObMeta
12. Death by Butter
13. Public
14. ObCalm before the ObStorm
15. The Big Picture
16. Do I Smell French Yet?

Saturday, December 29

I am terrified of what I have gotten myself into.

...

Time spent writing that sentence: 8 seconds

Time spent considering possible edits of that sentence: 10 seconds

Time spent deciding whether "into" should be one word or two: 4 seconds

Time spent deciding that, no, I would not, if this were a sentence in the novel, incorrectly write "in to" for the sake of an extra word: 6 seconds

Time spent admiring my liberal use of the subjunctive mood: 12 seconds

Total time spent writing that sentence: 40 seconds

QED: Time required to write 50,000 words at the pace of 4 seconds a word: 50 hours and 33 minutes

Now I am less terrified. Even accounting for editing and vanity, I should be able to wrap this up in a hair more than two days, maybe a week if I interupt the project to eat, sleep or work. (Even under the most optimistic of scenarios, I expect I'll be bound to two of the three.)

Posted at 8:54 AM

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Wednesday, December 26

When I'm anxious or bashful, I tend to mumble. It's a neat trick, me trying to talk without moving my mouth. I'm like a ventriloquist who is his own dummy.

So when I tell people about JaNoWriMo, it likes to come out as "my work on Janet Reno." Which is something else entirely.

Not that I'm telling anyone about my secret novel project. That would take all the fun out of having a secret novel project.

Posted at 8:40 AM

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