It’s that time of year again! No, I don’t mean the fast-approaching end of fall, or the beginning of truly crappy weather, or Halloween. (Although Halloween does tie in at least a little.)
November is standing on our doorsteps, and that means National Novel Writing Month is almost here! That’s right. The mad quest for 50,000 words of fiction (or nonfiction, or poetry, or screenplays, or whatever else) undertaken by hundreds of thousands of writers worldwide is practically upon us. And I for one, can’t wait.
If you’ve always wondered what it would be like to write a novel–or complete another creative endeavor of your choice–I highly encourage you to sign up. Seriously, November was in the running for my least favorite month of the year until I got involved with NaNoWriMo. What better way to forget about how short the days are getting, how dark and cold it is, than burying yourself in a world of your own creation and fretting about new ways to make your protagonist’s life miserable?
Or maybe that’s just me.
I’ve been a NaNo rebel the last couple years, which basically means that I’ve spent November writing feverishly on a story I’ve already started instead of starting something new. I find that I have much better luck with winning when I have some small idea of where I’m going, even if it’s no more than a few chapters.
This year, though, I’m going to be rebelling twice. Goal number one for the month is to finish my current project–finishing my rewrite of Facing the Music. I’m five chapters from the ending and making solid progress, so with any luck wrapping it up won’t take more than a week and a half. Since the story seems to expand and change the closer I get to the end, we’ll have to see if that luck holds.
Goal number two is to get a sizable amount of my new WIP, a NA mystery with a lot of romance thrown in for good measure. I have about five chapters of this story written already, a large cast of characters, and a decent amount plotted. I’ve been daydreaming about this idea for at least six months now, and I can’t wait to really dive in and explore all its little nuances. It’s untitled as yet, but for the purposes of both NaNoWriMo and this blog, the working title is Amnesia Conspiracy.  Hopefully you’ll get as excited about it soon as I am. 🙂
With only three days left to go, I’m going to be scrambling to get to decent stopping places on both Facing the Music and Amnesia Conspiracy so that I can begin in some concrete sort of way. Then again, that seems infinitely doable when compared to throwing together a Halloween costume for kick-off before midnight on the 31st . . .
Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo? If you’re considering it, what’s holding you back?
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