It's that time of year... time for National Novel Writing Month - or Nanowrimo for short. Last year, I was a Nanowrimo "winner" for the first time ever! I kind of feel like I cheated a little - I wrote a time-traveling story where the characters attempt to change the time line by repeatedly jumping back and repeating the past (with minor variations) allowing me to "recycle" plenty of my earlier work.
This year I'm going to try something a little different - I'm using Nanowrimo time to get caught up on blogging. It's been a busy year, and it will will be nice to carve out some time to get book reviews and blog posts complete!
How is your Nanowrimo going so far?
Where do all the books in the library come from? Somebody's got to write them. Somebody could be you! November is National Novel Writing Month - or Nanowrimo for short, where aspiring authors attempt to write a novel in just one month. Here's a message from the official nano site.
Another year, another Nanowrimo! How'd I do? I wish I could count myself amongst the number who've completed the heroic feat, but sadly, "real life" got in the way.
I was doing quite well, ahead of the game, but then, moving house ended up completely derailing my plans for glory. Packing... moving everything... and then unpacking... all of these things turned out to be quite a timesink.
Still! I'm very glad I made the attempt. I had fun doing it. I got much further this year than years past, despite a terribly uninspiring set of "pep talk" letters this year, urging writers to "just quit," or "write fanfiction," or, "no, really, just quit," as well as plenty of Nano backlash. I'm glad that I didn't give up, and kept on typing, right up 'til the bitter end.
I think the main thing that I took away from this whole enterprise this year was that writing a novel is hard. To be perfectly honest, my very favorite part of Nano was writing up all of my blog entries in advance, so that my blog would keep plugging along, as I nano'ed. Blogging is so gratifying. I enjoy writing reviews, and discussing favorite (or not-so-favorite) titles with other book lovers. Something about walking a mile in someone else's shoes has certainly made me feel like going a bit easier on authors whose books I haven't loved and only deepens my appreciation for authors of novels I've read that I've adored and there's something really wonderful about that.
It's November, and we know what that means. It's National Novel Writing Month, or as it's better known, Nanowrimo. 30 days to complete a 50,000 word novel. The objective isn't quality, it's merely getting it done. I attempted it last year, and did well... until I hit the end of the second week, and completely choked. I've finished reading my copy of No Plot, No Problem, by Nanowrimo founder Chris Baty and feel reinvigorated, so I think I'll try again. This website seems helpful too. Hopefully, I'll avoid some of the pitfalls I ran into last year and actually complete it this time.
