I first heard about NoNoWriMo in 2004. At the time, I was a freshman in college and “was already working on a novel, so why would I take on another one?” So, maybe I had a point that year. I think I was still working on the same novel that next year, so that was my excuse. I remember in 2008 my excuse was that I had just started a new job, was having to learn Spanish, and was you know—already working on a novel.
If you’re like me, then you’re never not working on a novel. That excuse kept me from participating in NaNoWriMo every November for ten years. So every November, I excused myself and peered into NaNoWriMo from the outside. I read what my friends participating posted on Facebook. And by the time the caledner struck mid-November, I wished I had participated.
This year, I’m going balls to the wall. The excuse of being too busy will always be there. So why ever listen to it?
NaNoWriMo is the perfect writing technique for busy writing.
NanoWriMo encourages discipline. The exercise of writing every day for a mid-term goal is what NaNoWriMo provides a writer and this builds discipline. As someone who has been struggling to make a living as a freelance writer for the last three years, I can tell you that discipline pays the bills every bit as much as what you write.
November is a big month also because it is the razor’s month off. What is better, Hemmingway, than sitting in a desk, drinking tea, growing out a beard and writing a novel?
Today, I am happy to report that I have gotten to my 1,000 words for my yet-to-be-named novel about a hamster named Jerry. My synopsis is as follows:
Jerry the Hamster is forced to leave his cage when he hears his master discussing a breakup with her lover, who also happens to be named Jerry. His escape is aided by a Scarlet Macaw, Pecan, who is a Zen student of the beta fish. As soon as he hits the outside world, Jerry The Hampster is nearly devored by a cat, but is rescued by Jelly Bean Sally, a roguish field mouse who is perplexed by Jerry’s newfound mission to find a new cage. Jerry’s worldview was informed by the parables of his twin sisters, Atlanta and Georgia, who believe the only place for a hamster to be safe is inside a cage.
Embarking on the same path with different destinations in mind, Jerry The Hamster and Jelly Bean Sally The Field Mouse suddenly find themselves caught up in an one crazed animal rights activist’s plan to return the world to it’s natural state. Can they save mankind? And should they, even if they could? Jerry sure doesn’t think so.
NaNoWriMo, NoFabNovember, And Movember: No Shave November — Together At Last
Ray Conways beards are legends in some parts of the world.
November is a big month. December is a cluster bomb of obligations before the year is completely over, so November is a get-shit-done month and you don’t have time to shave.
November is also the month of #NoFapNovember, i.e., a month when some guys are voluntarily giving up Internet porn. Why would any self-respecting dude in their right mind do this? After all, there are two types of guys: Those who look at porn, and liars.Well, the answer might be related to why I am participating in #NaNoWriMo this month.
I asked the same “why would you do that?” question to my friend Paul when he sent me a link on the NoFap movement a month ago. While as an adult I never bought into the Judeo-Christian argument against pornography (It’s a sin!), the newly emerging scientific evidence is compelling and offers some good reasons to get off it.
Pornography mixed with high-speed Internet creates the perfect storm for disrupting the dopamine reward system in your brain. For a full explanation of this, visit the great resource Your Brain On Porn.
The short of it is that messing with your dopamine rewards center, in addition to causing erectile dysfunction, can cause conditions like ADHD, Social anxiety, and can disrupt focus and discipline. Gary Wilson’s TED talk on the issue is worth a watch and offers the hope that all of the woes caused by Internet porn simply go away if you stop using it.
As soon as I processed this information, the decision to give-up Internet pornography was an easy choice to make. Outside of the moral argument, there is a compelling scientific argument. I connect this decision with my motivation to participate in NaNoWriMo. Since giving it up, I have felt more focused, disciplined and motivated—exactly what I’ll need to church out a novel by the end of the month. Let’s do this Jerry The Hampster.
