I think the hardest time to be a wannabe writer is November. But, you ask, November is when `NaNoWriMo <http://www.nanowrimo.org/>`_ is, isn’t that the best time to be a wannabe writer? Well maybe, and I think NaNo is a great project that is I think a really great thing, lets not misunderstand this comment, but it’s a really bad way to write a novel, particularly a first or second novel.
Novels take time, novels are complex, and even if you can pound out 50k words in a month, you still have to edit those words, and while there’s a lot to be said for getting peoples asses in chairs to write, I think we do a better service to writers by creating support/structures/etc. around getting people into their chairs and writing, consistently for the other 11 months.
Also, pacing is a big part of my issue with NaNo, it is surely possible to write too much, and wear yourself out to the point that it takes a few days to recover. I think this probably has to do with the fact that many of us do a lot of pre-writing by rehearsal that we don’t realize, and if you write too much without giving your brain time to think, you have to replenish the reserves. So while you can push yourself for a day or a few days in the end progress is probably more steady. I suspect this goes for all sorts of things, in addition to fiction writing.
So, I’m not doing NaNo, but I am writing. And that’s good enough for me.