NaFaSciFiNoWriMo

(Pronounced “nah-fah-sigh-fie-RHYME-O or, preferably in my opinion, “nah-fah-skiffy-RHYME-O.)

On an impulse I signed up for NaNoWriMo and immediately received the following email.

Dear eternalkyr [one of a few variations on my usual username],

Well, you did it. You’ve gone and pledged your November to the pursuit of the month-long novel. Whether this is your first or ninth NaNoWriMo, we know you’re going to have a great time, and we’re thrilled to have you writing with us.

For me and legions of other geeks, NaNoWriMo has a different meaning. For the “normal” writers out there, this month-long novel=writing project is the chance to tell a murder mystery set in their hometown, or weave a tale of romance around nostalgic memories of their college years. I’m certainly not knocking these mainstream genres of writing. Indeed, we cloistered fandom-folk could probably learn much from these works about pacing, balance, and character. But for those of us weened on the mother’s milk of Tolkien and Heinlein, Lewis and Lovecraft, NaNoWriMo offers us our first chance to create, rather than merely explore, a new world.

Hence my derivative unwieldy acronym, NaFaSciFiNoWriMo, National Science-Fiction/Fantasy Novel Writer’s Month. I’d like to say this is a clarion call to all my fellow closet geeks out there to take up pen–keyboard sounds far too prosaic–and inhabit new worlds and universes with wonder this November. And indeed it may be if other bloggers take up the call. In truth, though, this merely springs out of my rediscovery today of the NaNoWriMo project, and my tentative commitment to once again try my hand. I do, actually, aspire to becoming a fantasy writer, which, astoundingly, requires me to actually write.

I’ve committed to so many things in my life that I haven’t followed through with. Perhaps the Muse of the Gods or the little Gremlin in my computer will grant me the discipline and the imagination to churn out 50,000 words next month. Good luck to all others undertaking this grand endeavor!