NaNoWriMo

Yes, I am doing it again. I'm a pure sucker for punishment, but I am going to participate in the NaNoWriMo again. I really must be crazy because with my new job, I don't even have time to write over lunch anymore, so I will be altering my writing schedule for at least a month and see what happens. At least this year, I have a laptop and that will help.

For those that don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it runs throughout the whole month of November. Sign-ups start this month on the web site link above.

The concept is that you do your best to write the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This will be my sixth consecutive years as a participant. I'm sad to say that I have never completed the 50,000 word mark, but that's okay, I've been close. I use NaNoWriMo as a jump start to a new novel. My Love, Lies & Deceit novel that was published was my NaNoWriMo project for 2005, and the manuscript that I just finished writing was my project novel from 2006.

There's not many rules for NaNo. The main one is no writing on the manuscript before November 1. You can do all the plotting and character development you want, as long as you haven't started writing and that's what I have been doing for the past several weeks. I have my character charts filled out and have at least the first three to four chapters plotted. Once I start typing, it may or may not follow the plot I have outlined, but that's okay.

What happens when you make it to the 50,000 words? Well, you win! Not any money, or a prize, or a publishing contract, but you win the satisfaction of knowing that you did it. Then, the real work starts in December. You need to start editing that rough draft so you can get that book published.

Good luck to all of my NaNo buddies and for anyone that wants to add me as your buddy on there, I'm langleylady.

Carol