For the past two years, each November, I’ve done this thing called National Novel Writing Month. I’ve managed to bleed out 50,000-plus words in 30 days on each attempt, and hope to do it again this year.
The first year I didn’t have any idea what I was writing until that first day. The story, printed out in hard copy, sits in a dusty, leather envelope still waiting to be edited. Last year’s take was a collection of short stories, connected by a single item… a dollar bill. I posted each chapter as I finished, but have since set the pages to private. Edits wait on this one too.
This time, I have the germ of an idea. A story that started with a dream. It’s either that or if I can figure out a way to incorporate Pauley into a book without using any of what I’ve already done. See, participants agree to only use original material for NaNoWriMo. Decisions, decisions…
I also have to ponder more about whether I will post the novel here as I write. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to just write, so most of the word count will be sans editing. I expect grammar, punctuation and continuity to be casualties. The idea of leaving typos, tense errors, comma faux pas, and verbiage over usage for all to see, makes me twitchy.
This being NaNoWriMo Eve, I’m still trying to figure out what to do. I don’t have to write every day, but I do have to have a daily average of nearly 1,700 words to meet the required 50K count. When you have a direction, that’s not so difficult. When you’re flying blind, it can be agony.
Who knows, Thursday morning I may wake up with an entire book in my head. Stranger things have happened.
Good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers. May the muse be with you.
Thin spiral notebook 
I wish you the best of luck! Hope you wake up with a novel in your head!
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Good luck! I’ll be cheering you on, as I attempt it myself!
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Good luck! If you want to warm up your typing fingers for NaNoWriMo, you might enjoy this Halloween contest. If you win . . . 5 shiny new autographed children’s books!
You can find the details, and my entry, here:
Your story must be 100 words or less and Susannah gave us the first 3 ~ witch, bat, and “trick or treat.”
Be judicious.
Slash and dash.
It is Halloween after all!
B~O~O!!! 😯
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Good luck to you with NaNoWriMo. I’m in this year, for the first time. I have an opening sentence in my mind, and from there, haven’t a clue where I’m going to take it. My whole objective is to learn to “just write” with no editing along the way. Just thinking about that gives me the heebie-jeebies, so we’ll see how successful I am.
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Good luck Tara!
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Bwah ha haaaa, i laugh at the requirement to do something new ;). If i don’t use November to finish my Rachel novel, i suspect i’ll never finish. So that’s my goal.
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I’m not doing it this year. I wrote two books – last year Pedigrees (robots) and Helene. Neither are finished.
If you decide to do it, awesome. If not, I’d love to work on Millicent and Pauley some more.
I’ll be here reading whatever you throw down.
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This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo! I’m really excited but I don’t think I will finish 😦
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by the way, good luck to you too!
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Good luck to you too! My dilemma is similar, only I have 2 stories screaming in my head. I posted about NaNo today too.
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Have fun doing the Nano! If you do post, I promise to shut Madame Syntax OFF for the duration.
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