It's JeRoWriMo Time!

I’m participating in my local writing chapter’s version of NaNoWriMo this month. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, is held in November each year and participants write 50K words in a month. It’s a huge undertaking and I’ve never done it before.

However, my local writing chapter has adapted it to JeRoWriMo—Jersey Romance Writers Month. Every February, we write 30K words. Still a huge undertaking, but doable, even if the month is shorter. Basically, it boils down to a little more than 1,000 words per day.

I love participating in the challenge because it gives me a clear goal every day that I have to hit. We email our word counts to our head cheerleader (who also happens to be one of my critique partners) and at the end of the month, everyone who has successfully completed the challenge wins chocolate.

Seriously—public deadlines, head cheerleader whom I know and chocolate at the end? It’s perfect for me.

This time around, my goal is to finish a manuscript I’ve been working on. It was at approximately 50K when I started, so it will be complete by the end of the month. Not sure exactly why I’m bothering, as absolutely nothing is happening right now with my writing, but hey, I can always store it somewhere and know it’s complete.

Writing during the week is pretty easy, as no one is home to distract me. On the weekends? That’s another story. This weekend, I hid, and I was able to complete each day’s goal, despite not being allowed to count the words in the multiple texts with my husband who was at the grocery store. Next weekend I’ll be gone, so I’m trying to write extra words before I leave. And by the time I come back, half the month will be over!

Forcing myself to write and to turn off my internal editor is a challenge, as it is for all the participants. I’ll have to go back in March and significantly edit what I’ve written, but I’ll be a lot further along than I was when I started. And working on this manuscript regularly allowed me to plot the ending, something I wasn’t sure of when I started.

So if you need me, I’ll be writing!

Preparation

This week is chock full of preparation. By week’s end, I should be a regular Boy Scout (well, except for the boobs part)!

Right now, we’re preparing for Snowmaggedapocalypse. I stocked up on groceries (along with everyone else yesterday)—and survived grocery shopping on a Sunday, right before lunch, with two teens. I filled my car with gas—the gas station attendant’s brain was obviously freezing as he was trying to make jokes that weren’t particularly funny. My husband checked the gas on the snow blower, and we’re currently in the bargaining phase about who is going to snow blow the driveway when. So basically, we’re ready.

I’m also preparing my manuscript to send to my agent. I gave myself a deadline of February 1. Last night, I met with my critique partners and they gave me suggestions for several of the chapters. I’ll implement those (or some of them) this week, do one last polishing and send it off.

And then, I’ll be all ready for JeRoWriMo (Jersey Romance Writing Month), my writing chapter’s version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Those of us participating are trying to write 30K words during the month of February. It breaks down to about 1,700 a day, which may or may not be doable. I participated two years ago, and it was great. The discipline really helped and I loved it. This year, I’m a little nervous about being able to get it all done, but I have a new manuscript I’m working on and 30K words would be a big help!

That’s it for me, and quite frankly, I think that’s enough. Because, really, I’m not a Boy Scout!