NaChronoWriMo!

November is fast upon us, and with it, the month many a writer accepts the challenge of "NaNoWriMo," National Novel Writing Month. It's an excuse to go on a mad writing spree of wild abandon, and I've enjoyed it thoroughly when I've been able to commit to the rigor of setting a 50,000 word goal for the month. It tempts me every year, but this year I just can't clear my obsession over my Great White Whale.

What is that Great White Whale, you ask?

Sherlockian chronology. It vexes me.

'Tis a subject that will vex anyone who insists upon an answer, that much is true. But that is not why I'm vexed. I've seen a path through it for a couple of years now, but haven' committed to walking the path I've mapped in my head -- THAT is what vexes me. Next month, I'll do it. Well, okay, not this month, but NEXT month. And so on and so on.

The thing about NaNoWriMo in November is that it isn't really about writing. It's about commitment and dedication, focus and discipline. Moving past waiting for inspiration and just pushing the words out. And, in the end, you get something that might be a book. And that is a goal I can get behind . . . even with a different-than-novel purpose.

And so, with this blog post, I am stepping to the plate, pointing to the bleachers, and saying, November shall be my NaChronoWriMo. My National Chronology Writing Month.

Where a typical participant in NaNoWritMo hopes to produce something someone will eventually read, I will head into this knowing that my success means adding another unreadable tome to the great pile of unreadable tomes on the subject. It is the most pointless endeavor possible in some ways.

But, hey, I'm an aging male who isn't wasting Earth's resources shooting myself into near-space at least. At worst, I might use up like one one-hundredth of a tree for the five collectors who get a print-on-demand copy of the thing. And it may free me for a time from this curse we call "Sherlockian chronology" that Conan Doyle placed upon us. (Yeah, they say "the curse of Conan Doyle is about murders and suicides," but, no, it's pretty much just Sherlockian chronology.)

So NaChronoWriMo in a few short days. Feel free to join in. Or just go on being happy.