Commentary Ticker
- Different Strokes for Different Folks: How Masturbation Divides Us
May 24, 2013 | 7:10 pmWithout a doubt, the vast majority of people will engage in masturbation over the course of their lifetimes. May, even, is National Masturbation Month. Yet self-pleasure still remains a divisive issue, as it has for some time, and moreover, the question of its role forms the basis for much of the cultural divide in our [...]
- You Think You’re So Pretty: What Dove’s ‘Sketches’ Video Got Wrong
May 23, 2013 | 5:02 pm“I should be more grateful of my natural beauty” one woman concludes after participating in the Dove Beauty Sketches. In fact, the woman, Florence concludes that natural beauty “couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.” Florence came to these undesirable conclusions through participation in a commercial released as part of Dove’s campaign to promote “real [...]
- The Story of the Slurpee
May 21, 2013 | 5:37 pmIt might surprise you to hear that the Slurpee was an accident. Yet the beloved concoction, as a matter of fact, got its start when a Dairy Queen soda machine kept on malfunctioning. Its operator, Omar Knedlik of Kansas City, placed bottles of soda in his freezer as a failsafe. The bottles came out a [...]
- We Are More Germ Than Human
May 16, 2013 | 11:50 pmThe human body is one of the most fascinating and puzzling ecosystems in the universe, a complex community of cells, germs and microbes that is still being mapped and decoded. Recent discoveries in this field have caused scientists to reevaluate the way we look at our internal functions, and perhaps we aren’t as much ourselves [...]
- Daft Punk Streams New Album ‘Random Access Memories’
May 13, 2013 | 1:42 pmThe robots are back. The internet has been abuzz with hype for Daft Punk’s long awaited follow up to 2005′s Human After All, and today we finally get to hear it. While the official release date is still a week away, iTunes is offering fans the chance to stream all 13 tracks early. Simply follow [...]
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Can You NaNoWriMo?
The month of November brings many things—Veteran’s day, Movember, the autumnal turkey feast, many thank you’s—but among its most sacred assets is National Novel Writing Month, more excitingly known as NaNoWriMo. The goal of the 30-day activity is to produce a 50,000 word novel before the month ends. This breaks down to about 175 pages of text in the span of four weeks, which isn’t too large for a novel, but is definitely a challenge to do in such a short amount of time. On November 1, NaNoWriMo sounds like the perfect idea. But as the days go by, there are innumerable factors that can cut your master work short.
NaNoWriMo’s website—which advertises “30 days and nights of literary abandon”—has a number of resources to keep people writing on their 1700 words-per-day schedule. On the site, potential novelists can register to track their progress, interact with other writers, organize writing meet ups, and listen to pep talks.
While this may seem like a slightly insane concept, over 300,000 potentials have registered to participate in the event generating over 84,218,096 words so far (It’s only 5:00 pm on November 1). Last year, the event brought in 3,074,068,446 words total with 36,843 “winners” (people who finish the 50,000 word project). Most amazingly is the number of people who go on to publish their work. The most famous example being Sara Gruen with the best-selling Water for Elephants.
NaNoWriMo began in 1999 with freelance writer Chris Baty and 20 friends in San Francisco. He compared the process of drafting novels to that of starting a garage band and making music. It’s not really an exercise in creating award-winning fiction, but more so a way of creating noise, expressing oneself, and getting words on the page.
NaNoWriMo is not for the feeble-hearted. But those who get through it will have 50,000 words of something original—good or bad—by the time December begins. If you think you’re writing something great that the world needs to read, send us a chapter and maybe your work could be published and distributed around the Earth by The Airspace.