I was so excited to realize my blog day fell on Day 1 of Nano. Short for Nanowrimo. Which translates into National Novel Writing Month. Founded by Chris Baty and his friends who wanted to see what they could accomplish in a month if they really tried. It is for writers to set a goal to write 50,000 words on a novel in 30 days. You can find all the information at http://www.nanowrimo.org/
This will be my fourth year of participating. I love the thrill of trying to sit down and write so many words in one month. This month is really important to me, personally. I’m going to write a sequel to the published book I have coming out early next year. I want to see if I can plot out a book for a week or two and write it in a month. 50,000 words for me will be the whole book.
Lots of writers say they can’t do Nano because it is too intense, the holidays are coming, or for whatever reason. I don’t believe that. Nano is a great way to see what you can accomplish. It might not be the whole 50,000 words, but I bet if you try, you will have more words than you started at with on November 1, or you might surprise yourself and get the whole 50,000 or more.
Writers with deadlines don’t have the luxury of saying, “oh, it’s the holidays, I don’t have time to write.” If you are a beginning or intermediate writer Nano is a tremendous example of what writing under pressure is like, with the added bonus of releasing some of that pressure if you must. The only deadline you have is the one you set yourself. But let me warn you, Nano is very competitive. Once you start accumulating words, you want more and more. When you see how many your Nano buddies have, you want to stay up late or get up early and get more than them.
Will I see you there? You can find me under mrsgodiva. I’ll be working on Taming Brad, a contemporary romance. Here’s to all of us finding our 50,000 words.
