National Novel Writing Month

 So next week starts National Novel Writing Month (or NANOWRIMO or NANO). The idea for those who may not know is that you give yourself the challenge of writing a 50k word novel in a month. The official start date is Nov 1st with the goal of being done by the end of the month. I have done it for a couple of years now, and it is a great way to get the first draft of a novel written. If nothing else, it builds great writing habits. 

Some people set some pretty lofty goals, like trying to write a novel in one day. To me, that just seems like unneeded stress and chances of having 50k words of garbage to have to go back and heavily edit. Given, you won't have a polished novel doing NANO, but at least a serviceable first draft.

 I have a few that I have done, that I am in the process of going back and editing. I hate editing though. I always feel like I should be working on the next project. But, it is part of the process and editing and revision are important to make a book that hopefully, someone will want to write. 

I'm doing one thing that I rarely do when writing, and that is really planning out my writing with outlines and character profiles. I tend to go into my writing with a vague idea of a plot and then go from there.  My sister bought me Tanja Hanika's Writer's Workbook, and it has been a great tool for planning out my current NANO project. This may end up being one of my better projects. We'll have to wait and see. Maybe it will cause me to plan better.

I'm still making progress on the horror story collection. Just finished the story "Dead Mary". It will need some revision, but I think it turned out fairly well. Still have a couple more pieces before I feel it will be ready to do anything with. 

If you want to challenge yourself in writing, NANO is a fun exercise. Just remember to have fun. Too many people in my writing group on Facebook stress themselves out about it. You don't lose anything if you don't reach your goal, but you get some sweet discounts and swag if you do.

Until next time, as always, stay excellent!

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