Write a Novel in 30 Days

Well, with my current wild and crazy schedule, you can imagine it's taking me longer than normal to write a novel (or anything else, for that matter). And I figured it was silly to make things harder on myself by trying to cram more writing in less time.

On the other hand, deadlines seem to force me to "just write". Web pages, non-fiction books, fiction, letters to friends, email responses; everything I have on my writing agenda seems to happen better with a deadline.

So, I'm giving myself the mother of all deadlines - again: Write a Novel in 30 days.


National Novel Writing Month is Back

Two years ago (2008), I wrote a page about what has become an international writing event that thousands of people take part in. National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short).

It goes from November 1st through November 30th, during which you write a novel of 50,000 words. That's about 175 pages. Since most of my novels are over 400 pages, I probably wouldn't have a complete one in 30 days, but I can sure make a heckuva start.

For my first time, I took part in the writing frenzy last year. Despite being on hand about 14 hours a day building our new house. And guess what? If you weren't here last year, I managed it! A kids'/teen fantasy of about 75 pages which is being edited now and getting ready for publishing.

My teenage daughter also cranked out 50,000 words in 30 days (though it was about 5 minutes to midnight on November 30th, before she reached that goal).

This year, while we're in the house and not as hectic working on finishing touches, I'm pretty busy building websites for people, taking stock photos and training our two new "puppies" (one's 11 months, one's 4 months).

But if I managed last year in about two hours a day (yes, that's all I had), I bet I can do it again this year. And my daughter wants to do it again, too.

Like last year, I'm hoping I have some brave readers who will join us.

Time to sharpen those pencils (okay, for me, it's loosen up the fingers) and mull over a few ideas to get us going. No cheating and using a novel you've already started (I considered it). And no starting the actual writing before November 1st. You can outline, and plan a little, but no actual writing allowed till then.


Care to Join Us In Our Insanity?

Even though we have our local, surprisingly large group to stay in touch with, I thought it would be fun to ask my readers to join us, too. After all, many of you say you want to "become a writer", and what better way than to pour out a novel in a month?

You'll see just below here a form you can fill out to let me know you're giving NaNoWriMo a shot. Fill it out, send it to me, and I'll post your name alongside ours. Then once a week, I'll post our word counts - and yours, as long as you let me know how you're doing.

Don't forget to sign up on the NaNoWriMo website , first, because my sign-up form requires your NaNo username to verify you've signed up there. They'll send an email with instructions to get you started. Then we'll all write our fingers off together.

Are you game?

Let me know you're joining us:

(Note: Including your last name, or at least your last initial is helpful to keep people straight, in case they have the same first name. The email address is so I can whitelist you on my email account and get your updates.)

And may the best writers win!

Don't forget to start checking back around November first for updates here!