No politics. No cars, trains, buses or bicycles. I’m too tired for any of that. November provided many challenges and anxieties, but I haven’t missed a calendar month since starting this blog in March 2015, and none of my excuses for skipping this one seem compelling.

One could say that teaching three writing classes on-line and trying to write a new novel in 30 days might get in the way of writing a blog post. But other people seem to manage more than one project at a time. I try to keep playing my guitar while there’s no one to listen, and I look at marine catalogues and on-line stores while my boat sits on stands, covered for the winter. 

There’s a thing in November, a challenge for writers to produce 1,666 words each day until the end of the month. It’s even got a name, National Novel Writing Month, and an acronym so unwieldy that I have to keep looking it up: NaNoWriMo. One would think an organization of and for writers might come up with something catchier. It’s like a good book with a lousy title. 

I haven’t published a novel in 15 years. Will anyone want to read this one? I don’t know. But why should that stop me from writing it?

The idea is to emerge with 50,000 words of a novel manuscript by the end of the month. I know from past experience that the hardest part of a novel’s first draft is the middle, and 50,000 words is supposed to get you over that hump. 

You cannot take http://raindogscine.com/?attachment_id=20 generic levitra 100mg as a daily needs; it has to be taken only during sexual stimulation. Buddha through his noble eightfold path advocated the principle of moderation and taught his disciples to avoid the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. soft tab viagra VigRX Plus can be recommeneded (Unlike prescription cialis usa ) to anyone, either having erectile dysfunction problem or doing good enough at it. Work mechanism of these pills is essentially carried out by sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient of this tablet is Sildenafil cialis generika 10mg Citrate.

I decided to go for 2,000 words a day – it makes the math easier, and by the end of the month I’ll have 60,000 words – probably not a complete novel but enough get through the temptation to give it up. I hit 50,000 on the day before Thanksgiving, and the final count will probably be around 70,000. That’s not to say it will be any good. Imposed word counts encourage padding, and I’m trying to take crime novelist Elmore Leonard’s advice and leave out the parts that people skip over anyway.

I’ve never done this November challenge before. The NaNoWriMo website offers pep talks from authors, writing tips, challenges, prompts, chats with other writers also trying to write novels. Most of it seems like a distraction. But I signed up, and I’m writing this blog post now in part to put the news out there, to give myself the illusion that if I fail I will not only let myself down, but hordes (or more likely handfuls) of potential readers as well. 

A fair amount of delusion is required. Does the world really need a new werewolf novel? Aren’t my days better spent doing something else? Isn’t every other writer in the world trying to produce something, anything, during this pandemic?

But the November challenge has helped me, insofar as it gave me a kick in the butt and a deadline to commit to the page some of these ideas and plot lines that had been rattling around in my head. It has helped to establish a routine to get the job done.

I have an office in downtown Bangor, in which, among other things, I write this blog. Before I want to Bulgaria, I had the internet disconnected, and in the year and a half I’ve been back I’ve never reconnected it. Now I know why. It’s crucial to have a space away from all the conspiracy theories and the games and the YouTube music videos. In the mornings In the mornings I do my on-line teaching and electronic interaction with the world. In the afternoons I walk down to the office, close the door, and don’t come out until I’ve got my 2,000 words for the day. Some days it takes longer than others.

This effort may not come to anything. But it’s kept me busy during this tumultuous month, through all the ugly politics and the upsurge in COVID cases and the conspiracy theory bullshit. Now the end is in sight, in more ways than one.