Jamey Bennett wants you to join him for 30 days of writing

By nature, I am a perpetual starter. From diets to hobbies to publishing to clubs, I have started it all.

I have started a rap group, a theological book club, a writing club, a prayer group, a coffee-shop discussion group, websites on various topics, Bible studies, and even an initially successful, though now defunct, homebrewers’ club. Impulsively, I have done things like writing and recording a hip-hop EP in less than a week; publishing a poetry zine; I made my own icons and strung ropes of prayer beads; I obsessively researched starting my own brewery, even taking up hours of phone time with professional brewers from across the country; I have also studied 5 different languages beyond my native tongue, but to this day I am only fluent in English. I’m not saying I’m really any good at any of these things, but these are things I have enjoyed doing.

And, I’m about to start something else. If any of my obsession with starting resonations with you, I hope you will join me in just this one task.

There are apparently many people across the US that are embarking on a journey in November, dubbing it “National Novel Writing Month.” Their goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. You can read more about that here, and I confess that I have freely borrowed from that post in what is to follow.

In brainstorming for this wonderful task of writing a brief novel in a month, my mind began to turn over a couple of practical factors. My full-time job is writing technical reports, and I estimate I already write about 25,000-30,000 words a month doing that. Sometimes more. I remembered that I recently started two educational, historically-based writing projects with friends; also, I have been asked to contribute to a foodie website, a theological journal, and I’m brainstorming a Church-related blog with a friend. Speaking of blogs, my website is pretty sad these days. I also have two book reviews that I have promised to write… At the same time, I have been telling people that I’m working on a new hip-hop record, but it occurred to me that I haven’t written new material in at least six months. No, writing a novel would be a bad idea for me at this point.

So it hit me. Why not simply make November “Intentionally Focused and Productive Writing Month”?

My motivation is roughly the same as those participating in the novel challenge: finally get these many projects completed, get in the habit of daily writing (beyond my technical writing), push my limits to grow, and just have some fun.

My goal each day will not be immediately stellar writing. It’s simply a matter of reaching the goal with something semi-inspired. It can always be cleaned up later.

Also, cranking out 50,000 words on top of my regular 30,000 words is just not a doable thing for me. And chances are, you have responsibilities in life that will preclude you from pecking out thousands of words every day. So my goals are more modest. I figure that 750-1000 words a day is a reasonable goal. If I wrote 750 words a day, seven days a week, that would be 22,500 words in a month. So that’s my goal. Since I will probably only write 6 days a week, my goal each day will be just over 937 words. If I go over, great!

Now, since I have so many different things going at once, there will be some flexibility in what I might write each day. One day, I may write about food, another day I may write a song, or perhaps something theological. But I’ll be keeping tabs on that word count to make sure I’m meeting my daily goal. And at the same time, I’ll have to make sure I’m keeping up with my regularly scheduled work.

Will you join me? Will you commit to writing something every day for each day in November? Will it be the 50,000 word novel? Will you join me on the 22,500 word hodge-podge? Or will your efforts be more modest – say, 500 words a day, to total 15,000 in a month? If you will join me, let us set our goals and then meet them daily.

The most important thing, in my estimation, is to consistently write every day. Skipping days is a fast-track to failure. (Unless, of course, you’re taking a day off each week, as I plan. But I’m going to resist skipping on a whim.)

The second most important thing is the “WHAT?” of it all. As noted, I already have a long list of my own possibilities. Should you choose to join me on this quest, what will you write about? Are you going to write that op-ed piece about local politics? Perhaps you’ve meant to write a new blog post, but keep putting it off. Or how about a letter to someone you love? The point of this exercise is for us to crack our collective knuckles, and get focused on writing!

At the end of each day’s writing, I’ll be writing a brief note about it on Twitter. You can follow me at @jameybennett, and if you take my challenge, send me a note and I’ll be sure to follow you – or look me up on Facebook. Let’s start conversations, let’s encourage each other, but most importantly, let’s get writing!

(If you haven’t checked out the novel article I linked, now would be a good time to check it out. He’s got some great suggestions on fighting distractions.)

P.S. This is over 938 words – I have met my my daily goal. I wrote it in about an hour’s time. I think we can do this exercise.

P.P.S. I have no delusions that I’ll create a trending topic on Twitter, nor am I certain many will join me. Still, I’ll be hash tagging all of my posts with this #ifpwm.

Challenge accepted, brother! What fun! Although my interests are as diverse as yours, my writing probably won't be. It will be fun to attack the projects on my desk top in a purposeful way, and I tend to do well with quotas.

    tom askew - 10/26/2009

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