NoNoWriMo 2.0

I have made a commitment to myself to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year.  For anyone who’s unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month is an online program to encourage writers to draft 50,000 words of a new novel within the month of November.  It is a voluntary program and individuals choose to participate for lots of reasons, but mostly they choose to participate for the added support and camaraderie in order to get a first draft completed.  Individuals ‘win’ at NaNoWriMo if they manage to complete their 50,000 words during November. 

I participated for the first time ever last year and it was hard, but I can proudly say I did manage to eek out my 50,000+ words.  It is important to understand that this is only a very ROUGH first draft, the novel I started last year is still not completed, but it is much further along than it would have been without NaNo. 

Although it may not work for every writer, the encouragement to write every day and the structure that NaNo provides is actually helpful to me.  I am officially signed up to participate again this year, and I have chosen to work on a very special young adult historical fiction book about an explosion in the Halifax harbor during World War I.  I did come up with a very temporary cover to help with my inspiration.  I will get a cover professionally designed once the story is written. 

NaNo is not easy; it takes a big commitment.  Writers must complete an average of 1600 words per day to keep on track.  Last year I made myself a NaNo calendar to help me track my progress.  Once again, I will be sharing limited blog posts in November, and I won’t be doing a great deal of reading either – I really want to commit to this writing goal.  Writing fiction is incredibly difficult and I really hope that I can be successful.  Even if I reach my goal of a first draft by the end of November, that is only the first step – next will come the editing and cover design and more editing…but getting that first draft written will be amazing – so wish me luck, and please don’t be mad if you don’t hear very much from me during November.