It’s the end of October, and we all know what that means…it’s NaNoWriMo time!
If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what it was either, until a couple of years ago. It stands for National Novel Writing Month.
The idea is that in the thirty days of November, participants write a novel of at least 50,000 words, or get that far in a longer work. Prepping in advance, meaning outlining and research is fair. You just can’t start the actual writing until November 1.
This will be my third attempt at NaNoWriMo. I first tried in 2013, and started working on the second novel in my series. My best efforts fell short, due to a death in the family. Mid-way through December, I finished the draft of that novel. Then I put it aside to rest while I thought about other projects.
Last year I tried again. This time I tackled number four in the series. A few days before the deadline, I finished my 50,000 words. Great feeling. It led me to set some lofty goals for 2015.
I had great intentions. I wanted to finish editing the first in the series, publish it, and start editing number 2. Unfortunately, life, in the form of another death in the family, changed my plans.
However, 2015 saw the publication of Plucked From a Mango Tree, the memoir I was ghostwriting, so it wasn’t a complete loss in terms of writing.
So now I’m going to attempt drafting the third in my series, which has the working title of Stinging Power. While I wish I was further along with the others, in a way I’m glad. Stinging Power required some world building I hadn’t done previously. I think it will make all of them better books, especially the fourth.
My planning is a little behind, but I’ve got the main characters and storyline sorted out, developed a few settings and determined my plot points. For research, I’ve been reading about military strategy (something I never thought I’d be interested in). I’m picking up little gems to throw into the story, details that will bring my world of Razdelia to life.
But as I look at my calendar, I wonder if I’m crazy. We’ll be travelling six days out of the first two weeks of November. Then we are expecting our third grandson on the 23rd. And we haven’t even thought about the November holidays: my birthday and anniversary, birthdays of a niece and grandson, and Thanksgiving.
NaNoWriMo will be a challenge. Stay tuned to see how I do! Anyone else giving it a try?