Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Oh God, It's Coming!

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  In just over a week, NaNoWriMo will be here again.  For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - is thirty days of finger twisting, type your brains out, super fun free for all.  Or rather it the time when the goal is to write 50K words (one book) in a month.

To save y'all the math, that equates to roughly 1667 words a day.

I won't get into the fact that books from Chapter One to THE END are rarely 50K words.  Getting a book finished in November isn't the point.  The point is supposed to be proving that you are capable of finishing a whole damn book - even if it's only proving something to yourself.

I haven't participated in a while.  I can't remember what I was doing last year, but the year before I was in the middle of editing, so I shift my book writing to December and called it HoHoWriMo.  Some years I was in the middle of writing something else, so I didn't officially participate - I just tried to write 50K words and get the book finished.

The point of NaNoWriMo, I think, is to dedicate your November to the job of writing a novel - whether it be the actual act of writing new words or those most fun endeavors: editing or revising.  (Which is why some people take November and call it NaNoEdMo.  Hell, not everyone is in a place where they can WRITE in November.)

Me?  This year I've been trying not to think about NaNo.  Back at the beginning of September, I got all jazzed and told myself I was going to finish editing this book and jump into writing a new one come 11/1.  Let's just say that did not work the way I planned.  I also promised someone that I would work on writing the 3rd Djinn novel in November.  That ain't looking so good neither.

As Hubs pointed out yesterday when I was discussing (dreading, whining, belaboring...) NaNo with him: "It's hard to get excited about writing a new book when you can't get anyone interested in the old books." 

So, with a little over a week to go, the jury's still out on whether I'll be writing next month.  And if so, exactly what I'll be writing.  Maybe I'll forgo the djinn and work on that  MG fantasy I was playing with last year...

How about you?  Do you NaNo?  Dreading it or looking forward to it?  If you don't do the NaNo thing, would you ever consider it? 

4 comments:

  1. I guess I'm a NaNo junky. My first year was...2006? And that first novel was SEASON OF THE WITCH, which releases the day before NaNo starts. Fitting, right? I'll be completely rewriting the second book in the Penumbra Papers series, THE DEVIL'S CUT for this year's NaNo. Or...if I don't get my arse in gear, I may be writing a 1/2 novel with CHRISTMAS MOON. LOL For me, NaNo projects are fluid, so long as I get my 50K words because I'm competitive enough that I'm going to win. Dammit! :D

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    1. LOL, Silver. The first step is admitting you have an addiction. Seriously, though, I know you and you'll crank those 50K out for whichever book you'll be working on and they'll be awesome. =o)

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  2. I did NaNoWriMo once in 2009. Yeah. I'm now in the process of rewriting that story and am halfway through the first draft. I'm going to finish the second half during the writing challenge my writing group is holding on FB in November. It took me four years to get over the horror of puking out X number of words 30 days in a row for word count sake. HOWEVER, after thinking about it some more, if things aligned I think I'd try it again. I've learned a lot about how I write in the four years since. I'd do more homework this time around. I would definitely plot more, etc. If you decide to go ahead good luck!

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  3. I've never participated in NaNo before (that's term paper season for university), but I have written 50K in a month before. This year I plan on fleshing out my novel and editing during NaNo. I hope it goes well, but we'll see =)

    Personally, I think you need to write a completely new story. Don't go back and write something you started before, or work on book three of a series you haven't sold yet. Write something new, just for fun! =)

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