Diary of a Network Geek

Ah, that is the question.

So, those of you who are regular readers may have noticed that the only two “Upcoming Events” on my sidebar are “NaNoWriMo Begins” and “NaNoWriMo Ends”.  Now, this might lead you to suppose that I’ve been thinking about trying that whole National Novel Writing Month deal this year.  Well, you’d be mostly right, except I’ve had such struggles with this one short story I’ve been working on that I didn’t see how it was possible to generate 50,000 words in a month.  I’m lucky to generate 50 words in a week!

But, then I read Jill’s entry on NaNoWriMo over at her blog, Jill Writes. First, I just got depressed that I had gone to all the trouble to sign up and then not be able to do it, again, this year.  Then, I embraced the fact that I knew it would be impossible with my current work schedule, and my friend’s current “freak out” schedule, to produce 50,000 words in a single month.  So, having accepted my inevitable failure, I started questioning it again.
“Maybe,” I thought.  “Maybe it would get me writing on a regular basis, even if I produce crap and fail the challenge.  Maybe something good could come of it, even knowing that I’d fail.”

See, sometimes, I’m a bit of a fatalist like that.  I get very attached to what I “know” and ignore the fact that I am often capable of much more than I give myself credit for being.  I could come at it as a month long writing exercise who’s outcome was irrelevant to the process.  Somehow, accepting defeat makes it more sublime to attempt anyway, like a noble samurai marching off to certain death because it is what he does, who he is.  Also, I could do the world’s crappiest comedic fantasy horror novel, because no one will see it anyway.
It might be fun…

So, vote over at the side there.  Should I go for it or not?