One month. 50,000 words. It's gonna be crap.

So I'm chugging along, working up some ideas for stories in various formats that I would like to do. A three-act play here, a script for a mockmentary there. Basically, just some diddling as I get my creative muscles working.

And then I came along this site: National Novel Writing Month. Basically, it gives all writers one simple, daunting challenge: Write an entire book, or at least 50,000 words, in a one-month period from Nov. 1 to 30.

I'm gonna do it. Why? Because I'm stupid.

Actually, I'd like to think my reasons are well-intentioned. One of the things that always trips me up as a writer, as I'm sure trips up thousands of other would-be authors, is that everytime you sit down and look at that blank page, all you think about is the masterworks that inspired you to try one of these things in the first place, whether it's Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Alan Moore or whomever. I keep thinking whatever comes out of my head is going to suck compared to those writers, so I stop.

I figure I'm never going to get better doing that. Eventually, I'm going to have to work out a complete story as a first draft, and then I can go back and rewrite to make it something that, while it may not be good, at least not suck.

So National Novel Writing Month is probably the kind of thing I'm looking for. There's a goal and a deadline. It's all about pouring every little messed up thing in your head onto the page as quickly as possible. If I'm lucky, I'll have something on Dec. 1 that I can work with, touching up the story into something I'm proud of. If I'm not lucky, I can always think that at least I finished something, while learning more about the process of writing.

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.