Because there was not enough going on, I decided rather spontaneously to do Camp Nanowrimo this April. Having done Nanowrimo six times (I think) now, and Camp Nano three, I have come to the conclusion that, while they certainly have their limitations, they are awesome for encouraging production.

Because if there is anything that prevents me from writing, it is pure procrastination. It doesn’t matter what. I can blame twitter or whatever my current favourite discussion forum is, but I managed just fine pre-internet (a varying combination of tv, books and early computer games).

I don’t know why the Nano format works for me — why I feel compelled to live up to the rather nebulous commitment I make each November — but I can’t deny that it does. I have (numerous times now) managed 50 000 words in a month with little difficulty.

So I’ve spent this past month writing the first half of a Canadian political thriller/mystery/something or other. I’m not exactly sure where it’s going (but I’ve killed off two people so far, one of them an MP) and — given that this is a very rough first draft — I expect things will change rather dramatically. I already have a list of things to go back and change, so there’s that.

And given what I’ve recently been watching and reading — House of Cards (US version, I had already watched the UK one); The Best Laid Plans (book and tv); Yes, Prime Minister (again!); and Paul Wells’ The Longer I’m Prime Minister on my bedside table, in addition to an awful lot of #cdnpoli twitter feeds  — what I’ve written over the past four weeks is all over the place. There’s a lot of editing in my near future.