It’s that time again!
It’s a month that I look forward to every year, where I can join
thousands of others across the globe in rapidly racking up the word count on
our newest novels. For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo
for short) is a challenge to write 50,000 words (or the length of a short
novel) between November 1st and midnight on November 30th.
That translates to about 1,666 words every day, which is no small feat.
I have participated for the last two years, and both years I
‘won’, which means that I was able to reach 50,000 words before the
deadline. The first year, I wrote the
first draft of a sequel to “The Canticle Kingdom” called “The Frozen Globe”,
which should still be on the horizon. For my second year, I wrote most of the a
novel called “Starspire” which I finished in another 20 days to round it out at
about 80,000. It’s my personal record at
50 days from zero to novel.
This year, I’m going to do the reverse of last year. By the end of October, I should have about
30,000 words towards the as yet unnamed sequel to “The Last Archangel”. During
NaNoWriMo, I will write the rest of the 50,000 words to finish the first draft
of the novel by the end of November. I’m
very excited about it.
You may ask if with such speed you see a drop in
quality. The great thing about NaNoWriMo
is that you are allowed and even encouraged to do extensive planning
beforehand. Some authors are pure “discovery
writers” and just want to see where the story takes them. Though I do this to a point, I find that with
NaNoWriMo, it is “plan or perish”. If you are going to write that many words in
a single month, you need to have an idea
where you are headed or you might find yourself 50,000 words richer, but in the
wrong direction.
So, hop on board!
Visit http://www.nanowrimo.org to
sign up and take part. In the comments,
let me know what you are planning to write.
Very cool! I also wanted to write and say that YOU are very cool. Though only in cyberspace-- I count you as one of my favorite people. And favorite writers. How could I get a signed copy of Canticle Kingdom? could I buy one on Amazon, send it to your place and you sign it? this is top on my Christmas list this year.
Thanks! Your comments really make my day. If you'd like, I have some copies of The Canticle Kingdom on hand. If you want to pay me $12 for the book and $3 for shipping, I would gladly sign one and ship it to you. You can send me your shipping address to thecanticlekingdom (at) gmail (dot) com. You can pay through a check, or I prefer PayPal. Just let me know!
I signed up this year for NaNoWriMo -my first time ever! I'm excited to meet the other local Wrimos (there's actually a meet-n-greet this Saturday at the Dragon's Keep comic shop downtown [Provo]). As for what I'm going to write: YA contemporary fantasy. I'm always hesitant to explain what my ideas are though (especially in cyberspace) -I'm possessive of them and I'm afraid somebody else could do a far better job than me at making those ideas into stories! Oh, my insecurities! But I will say that the story is full of yumminess.
This is an awesome post. I am trying to figure out my book writing too, and you helped me see that I could still participate by doing the rest of my story too, instead of just starting it. Thanks a million on your advice, because I was thinking of not participating because I am 80 pages in to my story.
hey I think I might want a copy too... are you in utah?