NaNoWriMo time once again

For those of you who may not know, National Novel Writing Month — aka NaNoWriMo — happens every November. It’s when writers decide to punish — I mean challenge themselves by writing a 50,000 first draft of a book in a month. It works out to be aprox 1,666 words a day, which doesn’t sound too bad, right? And it’s not. Until you factor in things like regular life, things that pop up, writer’s block, writer’s fatigue, plot that goes nowhere, characters that become assholes and drafts that just won’t let themselves be written.

I’ve tried it about four times. The first time was 2006 and I was successful. The second time, 2007, I got about half way through. My third try was 2011 and I got most of the first draft done. Last year was my fourth attempt and I got as far as planning out the book. So my success has been varying. But the cool thing about NaNoWriMo is that you can participate how you want and you can judge your success how you want. Last year, when I plotted out a book, it was the first time I had tried to work on something new in over four years. So, yeah, I was pretty happy with that.

This year I’ve decided to give it another go. I haven’t written a whole lot in the past few years, and for a while I actually made a conscious decision to not write. I gave it up. But I recently realized that I really, really miss writing. So here I am.

A few weeks ago I plotted out a non-fiction book on the various animals that we have looked after over the years. (Plotting before November 1st is not only allowed, it’s encouraged.) Yesterday, during a Q&A with Kelley Armstrong, which I will tell you all about tomorrow, I realized I didn’t want to write non-fiction right now. I wanted to write fiction, but had no freaking idea what to write.

Then this morning I remembered last year’s plotted out book, which is the first book in a cozy mystery series. So I dug out my notes and it feels like an awesome fit for this month. This morning I’ll be going through those notes, rewriting them out and then getting my 1,666 words in.

How about you guys? Anyone else NaNoing this year?

NaNoWha?

Hey, remember back at the beginning of November I was all gun-ho and uber excited for NaNowWriMo?  How I was going to kick its butt? Yeah, so that plan went to Hell pretty fast and I haven’t written a damn thing since November 2nd. Normally this would make me all grouchy and depressed, but I thought I’d take a different approach to my kinda failure and try to figure out the why.

I realized something about myself this month: I am not a multi-tasker when it comes to my writing. See, I was in the middle of editing SUPERNORMAL one last time when I stopped to try to do NaNoWriMo. Actually, I was going to try to do both at the same time. But looks like my brain doesn’t work that way. But I still thought I should be able to do both, so I ended up doing neither. Not good.

I’m chalking this November up to a lesson learned rather than a complete failure and waste of time. I was also sick for most of the month and am still dealing with a bit of a cold and sore back, but I think even if I had been well, my book wouldn’t have gotten written this month. My brain really wants to finish the final edit on SUPERNORMAL before it moves on to anything else. So I’m going to let it have it’s way.

The month of December shall be about friends, family, chocolate, snow, presents and SUPERNORMAL.

It’s going to be a good month, my friends.

It’s NaNoWriMo time!!!!!!

This will be my fourth attempt at writing a full 50,000 word book in the both of November, as part of National Novel Writing Month. Out of my previous three tries, I was successful once (the end result was SUPERNORMAL, which is in final edits now).

This year I’m going to finish, come Hell or high water.

Now, you’re supposed to start your novel on November first. It’s supposed to be a brand-spanking new project with zero wordcount until the 1st of November. Well, I’m doing it a bit differently this year. I started WEIRDO in October and then decided I wanted it to be my NaNo project. But I have 3,815 words written. Great words. Words that I love. Words that I am in no way scrapping to start fresh today. So here’s what I’m going to do:

Since I am starting with a word count, my Nano goal is going to be that word count plus 50,00. 53,815 words in total. Which means that my daily word count has to be at least 1,793. Totally doable.

To NaNoWriMo or not to NaNoWriMo

Since I want to try and have a first draft of WEIRDO completed this month, I had decided to bypass National Novel Writing Month this year. I have tried NaNoWriMo three times and have successfully finished it once. I figured that writing one book in October I’d give myself a break in November, especially since I’m just getting back into the habit of writing on a regular basis. But ……NaNoWriMo is so much FUN! So I signed up.

I have a rough idea of what I want to write. It’s the first in a series that’s been kicking around in my head for about two years now. Actually, when I have bouts of insomnia, I “write” this book in my head as I’m trying to sleep, so it’s pretty thought out. All I have to do for the outline is write the stuff down.

Anyone wanting to buddy up with me on the NaNoWriMo site I go by celtic_aura there.

Oh, for those who have no idea what I’m nattering on about, NaNoWriMo  is a writing event where authors try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Yes, we’re all nuts, but we’re very supportive of it.

Happy writing!