NaNoWriMo 2017, Here I Come!
NaNoWriMo–National Novel Writing Month–is soon upon us. For the month of November, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people will attempt to write a novel at least 50,000 words long. The novel can be about anything, and the author can approach it however he or she wishes (plot, edit as you go, “pants,” hybrid plot-pants (which has nothing to do with gardening), etc.)–in fact, there aren’t many rules. To do it “properly,” you must start the novel with a blank page, and complete at least 50,000 words by November 30th. You can plan, research, draw characters, create character bios, even cast the movie version of your story as much as you want prior to November 1. However, you are not supposed to begin the actual novel until day one of the challenge.
I did NaNoWriMo a few years ago, and completed a 70,000+ word novel. After editing and revising, it plumped up to around 80,000 words, and I even queried it, to no avail (obviously, otherwise I’d have an agent and maybe books published). But it was fun, and showed me how productive I can be if pushed. Given my renewed focus on writing, it seemed only right that I should give NaNoWriMo another go. So that’s what I’ll be doing for the month of November.
If you’ve never tried writing a novel, you may think 50,000 words is a lot of words. You’re right. It is. There are many who start NaNo and don’t finish. So you will excuse me if blog posts are a little light and perhaps not as frequent in November. I will try to post quick updates to Facebook and Twitter, so follow me there if you want to find out how I’m getting along.
If you’d like to give NaNoWriMo a try, go to the Official Site and sign up! If you’ve signed up, hunt me down (my user name is cds) and be my buddy. 🙂
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?
I’m planning on doing it, although not officially. It’s a bad time here – school year finishes two weeks after Nano finishes (so all the end of year stuff going on in that time) and the weather beckons (long warm sunny days). So not wanting to set myself up to fail; will just hammer it and see how it goes.
I’m debating this right now. Which means, of course, yes. I’m always the last to realize the answer everyone else knows long ahead of time.
You can’t start writing till Day One, but you can start prepping. I’ve started assembling the story in my head, but I’m an outliner, so it’ll be on index cards before I write Chapter 1 on November 1.
Hmmm, I haven’t given it too much consideration this year, but I think I would like to try and NaNo. I definitely have a planned WIP that fits roughly into the NaNo scope.