I’ve given myself a radical assignment with an ultimatum attached. Since this portion of the post will appear on the main page, I’ll sanitize it a bit: Poo or get off the pot.

NaNoWriMo - the yearly “contest” to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days - starts in three days. Because of the way my life is arranged at the moment, there’s no good reason why I can’t allocate the time next month to write the required 1,667 words per day, every day. So I figure, if I don’t take this perfect opportunity to crank out a novel on a 30-day deadline, I should cease pretending that I’m a writer and just stop.

Oh, I’m sure I would keep writing “Ask the Geek,” since that’s actually more business than pleasure (the byline on the actual printed articles advertise my computer business), and I might even write something silly for pleasure on occasion (although if recent history is any indication, I won’t do that either).

Here’s what I’ll stop, though: Including “writing” in my pipe dreaming. I’ll give myself both the permission and the directive to stop thinking about “that one day in the future” when I write something that sells and maybe, just maybe, I could make writing a significant percentage of my income.

It’s not that I would advocate the total abandon of a dream. In this case, though, this dream will accomplish absolutely nothing without some true action behind it. November 2007 is the month for me to prove that I have the ability and discipline to put the appropriate action behind the craft. If I bail out or fall significantly short of the goal, I need to face the truth and file this dream in the garbage.

Now, on the other hand, if I manage to succeed, that’s a whole other story altogether. That would give me hope. That would give me the incentive to polish the turd I might produce in November into something at least faintly resembling a marketable work of art. Then I will pursue selling it - something I’ve never tried, and am actually rather horrified to think about.

We’re only three days out and I still don’t know what I’ll write about in November. Unless I continue with a character I’ve been playing with during my new writing exercises (the wife runs, I write at the same time), or try to resurrect a story I’ve picked up and dropped too many times to count (highly not recommended by the NaNo staff), I’ve got nuthin’. On the other hand, almost all of the stories I’ve written in the past have erupted from nothing when I would take the time to sit and write, so perhaps that’s what November has destined for me as well.

I just hope it’s something.

I don’t want to officially quit writing, but I don’t want to waste my time with an unattainable dream, either. I hope I pull it off. I really do. This was one dream I kept hoping would really manifest. It’s just time to put up or shut up.