Camp NaNoWriMo

This month I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. If you have followed my blog for a while you know that during every November, I participate in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month and have done so for the last nine years. The goal is to write a 50,000 word rough draft novel in 30 days. I have never managed to make to the 50,000 words, but use it to give me a jump start into writing a new novel.

My novel, Love, Lies & Deceit was my NaNo novel for 2004, I believe. I was able to complete the novel later and it was published it in 2009.

Two years ago, I decided to give a shot at writing a contemporary mystery involving a police detective in a town in Massachusetts. I completed the first four chapters and then sat it aside to go back to work on a romance novel I was writing. For NaNo last year, I started writing a second mystery novel that was a sequel to the one I started the year before and completed five chapters. Again, after the end of November, I sat it aside to finish that same romance. So, when Camp NaNoWriMo came around in July, I wanted to participate in it. I had just started plotting out a short novel that I want to self-publish on Amazon Kindle that would actually be book number one in the mystery series. It will explain how and why the main character came back to his hometown to become the police department's first detective, while working to solve a rash of unusual thefts around town.

The timing was right to use that storyline for Camp NaNo. I started on July 1 and as of last night had completed 4403 words. I'm way behind the normal writing schedule to complete the 50,000 in 30 days, but I'm okay with that. I'm not sure the novel will be that long anyway. If I can just get it close to being finished so I can get it up on Kindle, I will be happy.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck. Of course, I could do a whole lot more words had I not stopped to write the blog entry. ;-)

Carol