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| Visit my NaNoWriMo page at: https://bit.ly/2zKwh6j |
National Novel Writing Month begins each year on the first day of November. Each writer commits to writing fifty thousands words during the thirty days of this month. Whether a person completes 50K, 5K or 50 words in November, that's more words written than by those who set no goals and wrote no words.
Time moves at warp speed during November when you participate in NaNoWriMo (you will see it on Twitter also as: #NaNoWriMo18.) It's hard to believe this is already the last day of the first week of NaNo18. So far, my word count is increasing at a steady pace. I expect it to continue in the same vein. What is my plan? I'm glad you asked.
The obvious answer is to have a plan. Whether you write by the seat of your pants or outline each chapter, a clear pathway from 0 to 50,000 words is your best solution to a surmountable challenge. Each year my plan varies. This year, I made a game of writing my 50 thousand words.
Until the end of October, I hadn't fully committed to doing NaNo this year. I have two manuscripts ready for editing, ones written for NaNo 2013 and 2016. In July, I published the manuscript that I worked on during NaNo 2015 and 2017 which became the novel SHARDS OF MEMORY Oral History in a Heartbeat.
With that much of a backlog, I figured my attention should be directed at editing and marketing. Granted, writing an original draft feels far more creative than revising and checking facts to support a train of thought within the story. But what convinced me to join NaNo this year were three better ideas:
1.) I would write a string of short stories that blended in with the parts of the 2016 manuscript that didn't make it into SHARDS OF MEMORY.
2.) These short stories would then be used for the April 2019 AtoZ Blog Challenge that lures me in year after year, just as NaNo does!
3.) The final product would become a companion piece for SHARDS OF MEMORY.
I'm not one to count my chickens before they're hatched. For now, I am enjoying the pleasure of writing the short stories. Also, a lesson has emerged: I'm learning so much about getting the beginning, middle, and ending of the story set, regardless of the length. (Did you know the only difference between a short story and a novel/novella is all those words in the middle?)
So, how am I doing?
Time moves at warp speed during November when you participate in NaNoWriMo (you will see it on Twitter also as: #NaNoWriMo18.) It's hard to believe this is already the last day of the first week of NaNo18. So far, my word count is increasing at a steady pace. I expect it to continue in the same vein. What is my plan? I'm glad you asked.
The obvious answer is to have a plan. Whether you write by the seat of your pants or outline each chapter, a clear pathway from 0 to 50,000 words is your best solution to a surmountable challenge. Each year my plan varies. This year, I made a game of writing my 50 thousand words.Until the end of October, I hadn't fully committed to doing NaNo this year. I have two manuscripts ready for editing, ones written for NaNo 2013 and 2016. In July, I published the manuscript that I worked on during NaNo 2015 and 2017 which became the novel SHARDS OF MEMORY Oral History in a Heartbeat.
With that much of a backlog, I figured my attention should be directed at editing and marketing. Granted, writing an original draft feels far more creative than revising and checking facts to support a train of thought within the story. But what convinced me to join NaNo this year were three better ideas:
1.) I would write a string of short stories that blended in with the parts of the 2016 manuscript that didn't make it into SHARDS OF MEMORY.
2.) These short stories would then be used for the April 2019 AtoZ Blog Challenge that lures me in year after year, just as NaNo does!
3.) The final product would become a companion piece for SHARDS OF MEMORY.
I'm not one to count my chickens before they're hatched. For now, I am enjoying the pleasure of writing the short stories. Also, a lesson has emerged: I'm learning so much about getting the beginning, middle, and ending of the story set, regardless of the length. (Did you know the only difference between a short story and a novel/novella is all those words in the middle?)
So, how am I doing?
G etting
R eally
E xcited
A bout
T omorrow
How is #NaNoWriMo18 going for you so far this year?
If you are interested in any of my NaNo publications, you can find them here:
available at Amazon.com https://amzn.to/2D9ZeMg
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