NoFiWriMo?

November is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, 30 days in which would-be novelists are encouraged to apply their bottoms to chairs and produce 50,000 words. A contrivance, true, and one I was originally tempted to disparage. A novel in a month? Really?

But when I thought about it, I realized I was probably more envious than anything else. Where is the NaNoWriMo for nonfiction writers? NoFiWriMo? Don’t we also need to apply our behinds to chairs? Don’t we also need writing places like Come Write In (a feature of NaNoWriMo, which I realize has now become an industry)? Aren’t our tortured souls also yearning to Finish Something?

Of course, nothing is stopping me from signing up for National Novel Writing Month and writing, say, a memoir. Nothing except the sheer terror of having to produce it, of course. And since it’s already November 17, I would have to crank out thousands of words a day to make the 50,000 word deadline.

No, thanks ...  I'll  just keep writing the old-fashioned way, word by word, page by page ... blog post by blog post.