NaNoWriMo

Now that the Muse Conference is over, it's time to start thinking about NaNoWriMo--short for "National Novel Writing Month." The point is to begin on November 1st and then (taken from the NaNoWriMo website): "to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."  Most novels, of course, are longer than 50,000 words. But by the time you reach the 50,000 word mark, you've got at least half of the novel done.

The one year that I was able to participate, I did "win" (reached the 50K mark); but I haven't done much with that novel since. It proved to me, though, that it can be done. I planned to try NaNoWriMo again in subsequent years, but something else always seemed to get in the way (okay, I'll admit, I know what gets in the way: deer hunting season, which takes up a big chunk of the month of November; I guess I have my priorities).

This year, I plan on trying NaNoWriMo again. Before the month begins, you can plan and outline your novel; you just can't begin writing until November 1st. There's certainly no danger of that for me--I don't have the first clue what I'm going to write. So these next couple of weeks, I'm going to be brainstorming an idea for what to write during NaNoWriMo.

If you're interested in my progress, you can find me on NaNoWriMo under the id "nightwriter." If you're interested in giving NaNoWriMo a try yourself, you can check it out at http://www.nanowrimo.org/