NANOWRIMO is back

Well, NANOWRIMO is here once again.

Before anybody goes off and says, it's NANOWRIMO, what in the world are you doing writing a blog post?  You should be writing something else!!!  Well, I've done my word count for the day, thank you very much.

For those of you who are scrunching your noses and saying, what's NANOWRIMO, well, let me tell you.

NANOWRIMO:  NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth.

The goal is to write and write during the month of November in order to complete an entire novel.  In 30 days.  That's correct.  One month to a novel. And it's totally do-able.

For anybody out there who ever wanted to write, NANO is a great time to just sit down and do it.  There's lots of way to NANO as well.  Some people like to prepare in the few months before.  They sit down and create an entire outline, plotting out each act and how much time or words it will take to complete each section.  Others are what we call "pansters", those that just sit down and type, knowing that their imagination and the keyboard will create something in the end.

I'm probably somewhere in the middle.  Yeah, I have an idea.  I don't like starting anything unless I have the beginning, a few things in the middle, and the end.  It must have an end before I start.  I keep an outline in the form of a playlist on my iPOD. The playlist may change throughout the course of the story, but I helps keep my story line focused.

Trust me when I say, anybody can do this, but you have to have discipline.  My daily goal is to have 1500-3000 words per day.  And I just write.  I save the editing for later.  That's what revisions are for.  So, just sit down and do it.

I've participated in NANO for the last three years and I love the challenge.  I'm not competing officially with anybody but myself.  But I know that I will have a complete manuscript by the end of November, something else that I can work and shape into something that I can submit for publishing.  This year I'm working on Book 3 of a series that I totally love.  Hopefully it will be available in the future for anybody to read.  With 13 finished manuscripts in the vault, there are a lot to choose from.

So, happy NANOWRIMO to everyone who is participating this year.

Write on.  Sincerely,
Dr. Evil