It seems sort of fun to try, just to see if you can do it. Of course, you can do it any month, but will you ever really without signing up to some event to make you feel guilty whenever you remember it during your usual lazy-time?
Maybe I can manage a short story in November? Or maybe that's even harder than writing a novel, i.e. "I didn't have time to write a short story, so I wrote a long one instead"?
By the way, according to my google search, that 'short letter' quote, sometimes varying slightly in its wording, is most often attributed to Mark Twain, but also sometimes to Blaise Pascal. A similar quote ("I'm sorry to have written such a long letter, but I didn't have time for a short one.") is attributed to George Bernard Shaw, and to Rudyard Kipling. One site says that the quote "may go back as far as Cicero". So Mr. Sam Clemens, stop taking all the credit for being witty.
Another writing advice from Mark Twain (or is it?): "Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." Hmm. That's damn good advice.
2 comments:
BTW, most of your friend won't be able to leave comments cos they don't have Blogger accounts. I don't know if you want to change that or not...
I fixed the comment thing.
Who are these "professional writers" of whom you speak? What makes them pro? And are they not allowed to participate in writer Olympics?
I think the thing that would peeve them more is if one of these people actually "find the time", write a bad novel, which then becomes an international bestseller that some people gush over as being 'deep'.
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