It’s official. I am going to write a novel and I am going to do it in 30 days. Yep. 30 days.
I joined NaNoWriMo which is short for National Novel Writing Month. It is a challenge to writers to write their novel in 30 days, or more specifically, to write 50 thousand words. It averages to almost 1,700 words per day. I haven’t quite decided yet, but I may be crazy.
For YEARS (and when I say years, I seriously mean years, like since I was in middle school) I have worked on one novel idea or another. Those that know me well, know that I have one I keep coming back to which was inspired by a book I found in my school library. I joke that I have worked on that book since I was 10, and in reality, it probably isn’t far from the truth.
Since publicly declaring myself a writer, I have spent most of my time writing for this blog. (I absolutely love this blog and will continue writing regularly for it even through this month of chasing down the right words to keep to my book goal.) My novel hasn’t been completely neglected. I created a rough outline, wrote character descriptions, played around with possible scenes and agonized over plot structure.
The difference between writing for the blog and writing my novel? Accountability.
I didn’t realize I would love my blog as much as I do. It has become very important to me and I work on it often. I appreciate my readers, so I make sure I have something new on the blog often.
The same cannot be said of my novel. Sure, I love it and I want to write it, but I don’t have the same immediate demand for the words to be written. Now, with the help of the non-profit group NaNoWriMo, I have a reason to get my words on paper (or computer screen).
One of the steps to help with accountability is to announce to the world that you are participating in NaNoWriMo, which begins November 1 and runs throughout the month. Here I am, announcing it to the world!
It is so exciting and not a little bit scary to think about how I will approach this project. It will be a lot of work even after the month is over. I am using this time to simply get the story out of my brain. After it is free, there will be a lot of reading, editing, reworking, and rewriting. Then, we’ll see. I may have a published book in my semi-near future.
If you have ever thought about writing a novel, now is your chance. You still have time to sign up to participate in NaNoWriMo. It begins November 1. We aren’t allowed to start writing until then. You can do prep work, but no actual writing.
Writing a novel may not be what you dream of doing and that’s OK. I propose that we all use November to do something we have always wanted. Follow a dream, find a new passion, do something daring.
Have fun!
Then tell us about it!
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Great blog post and congrats on your public declaration! I have a book that I’ve been neglecting to write. So much to do.