Is it that time already? I cannot believe that in one month, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will be here again! I have attempted NaNo two times and never finished my NaNo novel. Nevertheless, I am hoping for the first time I will do just that! I cannot think of a better way to get this novel swimming around in my head and only outlined on paper finally written. Can you?
For those you do not know what NaNo is here is a brief synopsis:
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
To learn more visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano
For those who need some prep help, like me, a great place to do just that is though an activity at http://writing.com. It really helps to go into November knowing the storyline and having a feel for who your characters are. Trust me. I know this is why I never finished my other two novels during NaNo. I just didn’t know my characters, setting or fantasy world enough to finish. So try having an outline or your characters fleshed out. In the end, you manuscript will probably need less revision, too. This year's prep has helped introduce me back into writing. Even though I have been busy with Stories for Children (SFC) and other things, I have not really spent much time on my own personal writing for two years. Now with SFC up and running full swing . . . my life has become very crazy. However, I want to start writing my own stuff again. Not that I don’t mind being an editor, but I miss the creating and writing part of it.
So how will I do it? I don't know yet. However, I will be sharing the experience with you and I hope you will do the same.