NaNuPoMo

[Zeke]

Welcome to NaNuPoMo!

Nope, nothing to do with nudity or postmodernism. (Though come to think of it...) Back in 1999, a group of writers decided that there simply were not enough terrible novels out there. They came up with National Novel Writing Month or "NaNoWriMo", an event for amateur authors to train their churning skill. The goal is to write 50,000 words by the end of the month -- mathematically, this boils down to an average of 100 words a day for each of the first 29 days, and then 47,100 on the last day. Writers who survive the process learn to generate incredible quantity and ignore that other thing. Since '99, there's been a NaNoWriMo each year (it's misspelled on most calendars as "November"), with more participants each time. Last year nearly 40,000 people hit the goal, writing 40,000 novels that were each read 40% of the way through by three relatives, one of whom was lying.

Even if I had no other obligations, I don't think I would try NaNoWriMo. I've seen what it does to my friends. It consumes their lives, overrides their priorities and moral centres. I'm pretty sure I was dumped for it once. But there is something to be said for using totally artificial commitments to develop discipline.

So this month I'm gonna try bringing back an old practice of 5M.net: daily newsposts. Most of them won't be site updates, of course; I'll make 'em where I can, but school has to come first. However, it's pretty easy to make a quick link post. The main reason I stopped doing them in the first place is that I was running out of ideas, but I've had years to build up more since then.

Let's get things started with a highly germane link. Nate the Great started a FiveMinute.net page at TV Tropes a while ago. (TVT itself would definitely have been a daily link a few years back, had I still been doing them; nowadays it's hardly necessary.) I'm glad to see us represented there. As noted, the page is fairly sparse -- it can definitely use some activity. Among other things, I'd be happy to see a broader range of site material represented, and tropes that apply to more than just individual fiver scenes. I'm not quite narcissistic enough to edit my own site's trope page, so It's Up To You!