Agoo, La Union — When I first resigned from my job at UPLB, my first resolution was to finish the first draft of my first novel within two years; by November 30, 2009.

Even then, I knew that was an ambitious target, because the scope of the novel, now somewhat tentatively titled “Mag-Ahon,” is, well, rather large.

Obviously, I’m running late, so I’ve decided to join this year’s NaNoWriMo, so that if I don’t finish the first draft, I will at least have brought the manuscript up to novel length.

NaNoWriMo (that’s short for National Novel Writing Month, logo below, left) is, as wikipedia describes it, “a creative writing project in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.”

The wiki continues: “The official event is held every November. Despite the name, the project is now international in scope.“

Anyone who gets to the 50,000 word is declared a “winner,” and the only prize is a certificate you print out on your own computer, and the satisfaction of having written 50,000 words. (Which is a reasonable length for a short novel, matching the rough lengths of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Great Gatsby)

I wasn’t planning to join NaNoWriMo this year because I didn’t think I would qualify: I had hoped that I’d have come up with workable chapters by November, and NaNoWriMo requires that you start afresh.

The thing is, I’ve made at least twenty attempts at Chapter 1 and half that number of attempts at a prologue, all ending up as dead ends.  So starting afresh on November 1 has now actually become a reality.

“Starting afresh” doesn’t mean starting from scratch, however, and NaNoWriMo rules allow drafts, outlines, character arc profiles, and so on.  And in that regard, I’m rather guiltily ahead of most people joining.  I have a 200+ page “series bible” for the novel which serves as a my technical guide for the context of the story – geography, ethnography, language, economics, and so on.  That volume (above, right) is backed up by two years of research (I had a brilliant Research Assistant!)  And since I set the novel in Laguna de Bay/Makiling circa 800AD, I have spent more than a decade of afternoons walking the shores and hills and forests which are my setting, albeit 1200 years too late.

Why haven’t I trashed out the novel yet, given how much work I’ve already put into it?

Well, I can cite the fact that I’m a first time novelist, and I can cite the difficulty of my genre. (JK Rowling took 5 years to develop Harry Potter, and JRR Tolkien and Frank Herbert took a lifetime to develop Middle Earth and Dune, respectively.)

But the truth is, the biggest reason is that every time I start the story, I spot a flaw that completely stops me, and the draft is doomed.

F Sionil Jose once said that he wishes he had learned the lesson “Write first, do the research later” earlier. I suppose it’s appropriate for me to say “Ditto, dude.”

NaNoWriMo tries to organize its participants into communities, and the tinamats, the liaison for the Philippine community, had some good advice for me today.

“Kill your internal editor, or at least arrest him and put him under lock and key for a month.”

Hm.

Yes Ma’am.

Gladly.

-30-