Right now, I fall into both of those categories.

I believe that I have a book or two within me. But I have yet to write it.

In fact, this is part of my reasoning for this blog. I have a desire to write, but I don’t have the clarity or the focus. I started writing articles and posting them here to develop my skills as a writer. I feel that I’ve made some progress, although I have a long way yet to go.

Until recently, writing blog posts has been enough. Not too long ago, a friend of mine told me that he wanted to write a book, and that he thought he could do it in 30 days.

I scoffed.

Until I learned that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). And it comes with a challenge: Write 50,000 words in the month of November.

50,000 words. That’s a pretty lofty goal. That’s a lot of writing. It works out to 1666 words a day. On average, I write 750-800 words in each article that I post here on JeffRandleman.com. One post takes me around 45-60 minutes to write, edit, and prepare for posting.

But 50,000 words…

Ever since my friend mentioned it to me, I’ve been toying with this idea, with or without a few modifications:

• I could write a fictional novel, just as NaNoWriMo is designed.
• I could write a non-fiction work. I have several ideas for this already.
• I could write several months’ worth of blog posts for this site. At 750 words per post, that would give me more than 65 posts.

There are several pros and cons to each of these scenarios.

In the first one, I could write a fictional novel that would be entertainment. But I don’t have any great ideas here. At least not yet. And writing dialog isn’t my strong point. It seems too forced to me.

In the second scenario, writing a non-fiction work, my work would be cut out for me. I already have several directions I could go with this one. In fact, I already have a rough outline developed for one of them. But the research would be the killer. Supporting facts, illustrations and structure would be time consuming.

My third option, writing a stock pile of blog posts, is very appealing. This is what I’m used to doing two to three times a week already. I could do this. The drawback is that I’m afraid it may make me lazy, knowing I have a supply of articles ready to post. I think my writing skills would suffer over the next months as a result.

I realize that this sounds a bit whiny. I’m not trying to sound that way, really. I’m just trying to figure out the best way to write so that I continue to do what I’ve been doing, while challenging myself to grow in my abilities. I’m not sure how I want to do that.

I’d better figure it out, since November starts tomorrow.

Or, I could just shift the time frame to accommodate me. No one ever said that I have to do this exactly like everyone else is. Although I’m sure that the accountability and camaraderie would be a great help to me.

One way or the other, I’m trying to challenge myself. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Do you have a book inside you? If so, what do you need to do to write it? You can share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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