NaNoWriMo Here I Go!

For the first time, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. Writers all over the world commit to writing 50,000 in 30 days. There are online incentives, libraries and public spaces that open specifically for the participants, and a network of people who encourage each other.

I’ve never wanted to participate before, because November is an impossible month. With holidays and school breaks, those 30 days boil down to maybe 20. And 50,000 words? It always sounded impossible. But this year, I decided to do it at the last minute. My attention span is sorely lacking and I have a lot of writing projects that need completing. So I decided, why not?

Besides, I’m awesome with a deadline. 50,000 words boils down to 1,667 words per day. I round it to 1,700 to give myself a little breathing room. I’m like our rescue dog. We have an electric fence so she can run in the yard without a leash. She knows where the “fence” is, and creates her own set of boundaries—about 6 feet inside the electric fence—so she doesn’t mistakenly bump into it. That’s me. If I write at least 1,700 words a day, I can’t possibly not hit my goal.

50,000 words, added to the 30,000 words I’d already written, means I’ll have a complete manuscript when I’m done. Or so I thought. The problem is those are the number of words I have to write. We don’t edit during this time, so those words are not necessarily my best words. And because I’m working on a manuscript that’s been giving me trouble from the beginning, and I didn’t prep ahead of time for this challenge, well, there are problems. My biggest problem? My heroine. I’m two thirds of the way done with this book and she still doesn’t have a purpose. I mean, she’s a good foil for the hero, but as an independent woman? Yeah, I’m stuck. So I already know I’ll have to go back and figure out why she exists.

But it’s a start!