Too Much Writing?

In my last podcast, I talked about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and my participation in it. The good news (actually, it's bad news, but my younger, more spite-filled self wouldn't think so) is that my brother won't be able to finish his book this year. The bad news is, I doubt I'll be able to either.

I am so tired of writing right now. But I'm glad I tried this out before doing it with my future students. That's a new rule for me, that should be common sense, but it wasn't when I was doing my student teaching: try something yourself before you ask your students to do it. That goes right in line with another rule: don't assign homework thinking you're the only teacher the students have.

What is really cool about NaNoWriMo, however, is that it is basically a really long free write. The novel I thought I would be writing has taken on a life of it's own and headed in a different direction. The message is the same, but the plot and cast of characters is very different from what I originally planned. And I feel good about how much I've written, the 12,000 plus words.

On the flip side, I'm not sure that writing should be so strongly associated with a number - the 50,000 words you have to reach to be a NaNoWriMo "Winner." I agree that finishing a draft is a good idea before revising and rewriting. But a length requirement, I don't think, is the best idea.

But any way, long post short, I am very tired of writing, and even though I know where to go next in the novel, I don't want to write any more.