To NaNoWriMo or not to NaNoWriMo?

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. In case you’ve been living under a rock and/or don’t have acquaintances who write trite fantasy novels where the protagonist is the heir to an empire but doesn’t know it while a friend of his has to deal with being half-elf, NaNoWriMo is the awkward and clumsy short form for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November and the goal is for writers to hit the 50,000 word mark within the 30 days allotted to the calendar month.

It sounded like a good idea two days ago. Now, though, I’m not so sure.

 I have a novel I’m working on that has been put on the back burner due to other commitments, and also because I didn’t like the direction certain things were going. So I decided to walk away from it a bit. I don’t want that to be this, because anything in NaNoWriMo is going to inherently be a rush job. What I’m working on has too much promise for me to waste on an exploratory exercise.

 There’s also the matter of me needing to spend more time focusing on writing and working bits for my stand-up.

 So would NaNoWriMo actually be a useful exercise? Possibly. It might also produce something that’s worth expanding on or revisiting.

 On the other hand, it might also just be an excuse for me to not do the things I should be doing: working on the real novel, working on the comedy, and working on myself.

 I keep going back and forth on this.

 After work I’m going for a run, which is always an opportunity for thinking about things (both to my advantage and detriment). Then I’ll be downtown for a comedy open mic. Then, maybe, I’ll see how long it takes me to start with 1,500 words on a novel about…I don’t know. Let’s say zombies. I’m sick to death of them, but I do miss the days when they would actually rise from graves rather than be infected with a virus. Oh, and maybe tie it into a conspiratorial plot. I don’t know. Why not?

 We’ll see.