NaNoWhyNow?

Before you ask, yes, I realize I have bad-mouthed my experience with NaNoWriMo in 2006 and yes, I have signed up this year. I recently found the document I had started for that earlier challenge — I wrote over 6000 words before I bailed — which I thought was long lost on an old hard drive. I hope to revisit that story in the future but it’s not my focus this time.

Ultimately, I chose to sign up as a kick to my own backside. If you recall, back in June, I asked you which of my writing projects should be my priority. Many of you who answered the poll suggested the YA novel (working title “Undead”)would be a good place to put my energy. So, I plowed into it for a while, then got distracted. Then October rolled around and I thought I would focus on writing a little every day but somehow the month evaporated.

That brings me to November which is the month that was, for some unknown reason, selected years ago to be National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. So, to be clear, I am being rebellious with my writing; the rules say you are supposed to start fresh but I started with 2210 words and a working outline. To win one is expected to write 50,000 words so if I can get to 55,000 I will call that my “win.” Of course, what I am really aiming to do is to get into the habit of writing on my novel every day — hopefully before I delve into blogging or social media — so the numbers are less important to me than the act of opening the file and typing every day.

It helps, too, that Twitter & Facebook friends are also writing this year so if I do choose to let my competitive side take over, I will have “competitors” against which I can measure my progress. On the other hand, I also have people to encourage me and remind me to stay on target. I’m infamous for my 8-day attention span so sometime after that’ll be when you need to prompt me to ask how I am doing. If you are doing NaNoWriMo you can find me here.