NaNoWriMo- 1 Book in 1 Month

I am so not ready for this. And I only have one more day to prepare.

For anyone not in the writing community, November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal is to write 50,000 words of a rough draft in one month, basically what's considered a full-length novel. (Now I said rough, not ready to publish. Re-writes and edits will come later.) To put it in perspective, I can normally write a 70-90k novel in THREE months, and have a pretty clean manuscript at the end. Some people can write faster, some are slower, but for me, three months is what it takes.

I've joined NaNo for the past two years, and I haven't made it to 50k yet. However, it's an awesome motivator to get you into the habit of writing every day, without worrying so much about typos, etc. I will have to fire my inner editor for the month, and not let her go back and nitpick over what was written the day before. My family will have to feed themselves, and the house will not get cleaned. But I'm doing it. I'm determined. Mostly, to make up for the time lost over the summer while we moved from Seattle to Austin.

It's crazy, it's insane, and it bonds together a group of writers who spend much of their time alone, except for the characters in their head, of course. Plus, it's just fun to try! Those of us participating who live near each other will get together for Write-Ins at coffee shops, bookstores, and libraries. And we track our words written everyday, all for bragging rights that you "won" at NaNoWriMo.

So, I say, let's do this, people! And hopefully, I'll have something at the end of the month that I can polish into a great book. :)

Please send chocolate, coffee, and the occasional motivational meme.

See you in December. :D