NaNoWriMo

It's November again (how did that happen?), which means it's National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That breaks down to 1,667 words a day. It doesn't sound like much but it is. It takes a lot of focus and dedication to get the words in every day.



I sort of hate NaNo.

I sort of love NaNo.

What I hate is the pressure. Sometimes (like this year), I'm struggling to get the words down (I want to say to get the words on paper, but since I write on a computer, that's not exactly true). I fell behind on November 3. Usually I'm ahead in the counts at least until the second week. I get so far ahead I can even skip writing for a day. Not this year. I made up some ground yesterday, but I still am 500 words behind, not to mention the additional 1,667 I owe for today.

What I love is that I write. I've been in a writing slump since I finished Made for Me. That was the end of July. So, yeah, I need motivation to write. Plus, NaNo works for me. My first attempt at NaNo (2013) resulted in the first 50,000 words of I'm Still Here. April and July are Camp NaNo, where you set your own word targets for the month. I finished I'm Still Here  in Camp NaNo in April 2014. I started Jump, Jive, and Wail in the July Camp NaNo 2014. I finished it just before NaNo 2014, so that's when I started Killing Me Softly. I didn't complete (win) NaNo in 2014. November is a hard month with work, conferences, and the holidays. I stopped about 27,000 words into Killing Me Softly. I felt okay with that decision, and since I had to edit Jump, Jive, and Wail, I never looked back. Camp NaNo in April 2015 saw Killing Me Softly get finished. Live for This was started in the July 2015 camp, and finished as my NaNo 2015 project. The April and July camps for 2016 are how Made for Me was written.

Certainly I write other than in November, April, and July, but it is when I get the bulk of my books done. This NaNo, I'm working on the follow up to Made for Me. I have a working title, but I'm not sure it will stick. You can be sure it will start with N though. :-)

I may not blog for the rest of the month, but you can be sure my hands will be on the keyboard. I owe it to myself. I owe the world Kira's story. And, let's face it, NaNo works for me.


  


Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 5, 2016 at 6:21 AM

    I feel your pain! I also fell behind on Thursday and usually I'm so far ahead by the second week I can take it down to writing under a 1000 words a day and still make it. Not this year!

    ReplyDelete

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