Sterfish: Novelist?

After some thought, I've decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). I signed up and now have a profile up on the site. I became intrigued by it due, in part, a series of posts by fellow Blog Critic Richard Marcus that dealt with his experience from last year. Now that it's come up again, I have decided to attempt it.

The goal is to write 50,000 words of fiction within a month. On one hand, I know I can write that many words. My blog posts tend to be on the long side and I've written over 800 of them. Also, I've written a ton of skits and a few short stories. On the other hand, the longest short story I've written tops out at close to 10 pages and I've aborted every previous attempt at a novel.

The biggest obstacle for me will be to resist my urge to edit as I write. Whenever I write anything fiction, I always end up doing this. I also do it when I write my reviews, although it's not as bad. I normally have to have whatever I write start out the way I want it. If it doesn't, I have no qualms about starting the whole thing over. Even though I consciously know that I can just rewrite the beginning when I finish the piece, I still need for something to at least start out okay.

Also, I'm one of those people who loses confidence in their fiction writing almost as soon as they start. On more than one occasion, I think I've gotten off to a good start, then I suddenly feel like that what I'm going to end up doing is crap and I toss it. That sounds incredibly ridiculous, I know, but that's what happens.

I think I will be able to finish a novel if I remember that it doesn't have to be good. I will use this opportunity to write something fun off the top of my head and see where it takes me. It will be a big boost to my writer's ego if I finish this. I've written short stories, skits, comics, reviews, and blog posts. I've even tried my hand at poetry (talk about something to be terrible at). A novel is the last big leap for me. I can't wait to see if I can finally make that leap.

National Novel Writing Month starts on November 1st. Wish me luck!