I have decided to take a month-long break from my work-in-progress (WIP) and rediscover the excitement of creating an all-new story. Yes, I am going to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In case you don’t know, November is NaNoWriMo.
Click here if you are unfamiliar with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
Ten years ago, I first heard about NaNoWriMo. I was lying in bed on a Saturday morning. It was November 1st and I had just learned about NaNoWriMo the night before when I was on the internet.
“I want to do this, but it starts tomorrow. Is it too late?”
My subconscious must have convinced me to try it while I slept. Upon awakening, I reached over, grabbed a pen and tablet, and wrote a list of possible scenes for my novel. That day, I wrote my first 1600 words. I completed my novel in three weeks.
And I’ve done it almost every year since. Some years I reach the goal of fifty-thousand words by the end of November. Some years I don’t. I always have fun.
I’ve reworked some of my NaNoWriMo drafts and self-published them.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve participated and I decided to do it this year for several reasons:
- I want to rediscover the excitement of writing the rough draft of a story.
- A certain story idea has been in my mind all year and it won’t go away.
- I need to step back from my WIP and reevaluate it.
- I want to play with new characters.
- I have been rewriting and rewriting scenes and I want to just write something totally new. (This is sort of related to the first item on the list, but it’s not quite the same thing in my mind.)
I already have a title. I know generally what the story is about. I have an idea for the main character, and I’m even more excited about the antagonist. I just have to get my characters from point A to point Z.
If you think you’d be interested in writing a novel in one month (really it’s a rough draft of a novel, 1600 words a day), but haven’t done it, try NaNoWriMo. It may give you the confidence you need to realize you CAN do it.
Andrew M. Friday 