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Thursday, November 17, 2005

 

NaNoWriMo Day 17: 1,667 words a day -- or not

When my stepdad found out I was going to attempt NaNoWriMo, he sent me a bunch of cartoons he had clipped out of one or two of the million or so magazines and periodicals that he reads.

One of the cartoons he sent me was by writer and cartoonist Harry Bliss, who regularly contributes to the New Yorker.

In the cartoon, two men are sitting at a bar. One man is clearly a businessman. He is wearing a suit and tie. He looks a little like Nixon.

The other man is more dishevelled looking. He is wearing a sweater over a shirt and he is a bit on the rotund side. His hair is thinning and he is wearing spectacles. He is holding up his glass and gazing into it as if might be the holy grail. In front of him is a pad of paper. It appears as though nothing is written on it.

This man is clearly the writer.

The caption under the cartoon reads, "I try to write 5000 words a day - or not."

This cartoon tells it like it is and contains the essence--the ESSENCE I tells ya--of the daily flogging, the torture that is NaNoWriMo. This Harry Bliss character is clearly a genius or at least a tortured soul but definitely a potential kindred spirit.

To check out the original cartoon, go to the Harry Bliss website.

NaNoWriMo update: I'm at 34,008 words. I'm in some kind of crazy downhill spiral where every chapter leads almost effortlessly into the next. Or something like that. I'm aiming to be done a week from tomorrow. I.Can't.Wait.

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