Failing NaNoWriMo

So NaNoWriMo starts up next month and I'm looking forward to failing. I'd like to be optimistic, but with a baby arriving in late November, I'm pretty much predestined for failure. Hell, last year I didn't make it through to the end because I couldn't hold off on downloading Skyrim. Based on what people have told me, I'm assuming having a baby will be slightly more involving than Skyrim. This makes sense to me since while Skyrim has better character options and plot, I'm thinking a baby will be more interactive and possibly in higher definition.

Looking forward to that sandwich. Over.

Despite this omen of doom hanging over my November, I'm looking forward to it. I found that last year I still enjoyed the ride even if I didn't reach the destination. You see, I tried to write a novel when I was younger and it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience where sudden jets of self doubt would send me rocketing out of the atmosphere to collide with asteroids composed of raw depression and self hatred, ceasing my momentum with concussive force and leaving me to fall back to Earth like Felix Baumgartner. And then I would have lunch.

I like NaNoWriMo since it takes a lot of the stress out of novel writing. You just write and write and you don't think too much. Let's face it, writers of fiction are, by nature, dreamers. This is great for plots and characters and such. It's not great when you start fantasizing about book tours and writer panels. Before you know it, you're an author who wrote a bestselling novel but failed to write a sophomore novel from near terminal writer's block and you're living in a trailer somewhere eating beans and trying to dodge creditors and editors and your own fraudulent self. And then you have dinner.

Knowing there are a quarter million other people doing this also helps me to put it in perspective. Doing it last year felt more like a game than work. If I play World of Warcraft, I'm not doing it to be the best and to "win" it. I'm doing it to have fun and to create something unique that I enjoy. That one guy playing WOW to be the absolute number one best? He probably has some issues to work through that don't involve quests.

To sum up, for the next month my NaNoWriMo motto will be this: To Fun and Failure!