NaNoWriMo: Yeah, I Said It

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

For those of you familiar with NaNoWriMo, it requires no further explanation. The mere appearance of the word is inspiring cold sweats and a churning knot of anticipation and fear in your StomachParts and a tingling sensation of hope. For those of you who think I just made that word up, here's what it is:

National Novel Writing Month. Every year in November, tens of thousands of people attempt to write an entire novel before the end of the month. A lot of them fail. Some of them don't. Mostly, I look on from the sidelines with arched eyebrows as I plug away at some other novel deadline and toy with the idea of jumping in. Last year I used it to write 20,000 words and a synopsis of a novel that wasn't currently under contract while I was writing a novel that was, right before I was ambushed with edits from another novel and had to call the whole thing off. Basically, I've never really attempted NaNo in the spirit of the thing.

Until now.

Oh, yeah, I said it. This year, I'm making it a goal, and Maggies Don't Break Goals. So what if my existing novel FOREVER is due March 1st? Or that I will be flying to two different conferences for eight days of the month? Or that I will have to also write two short stories for Merry Sisters of Fate during that time? Pshaw, minor set-backs. My two crit partners (everflame and brennayovanoff and I had the following chat:

me: I have decided to NaNo, Brenna.

Just this morning.

Tessa gave me permission.

Brenna: of course you have.

I don't think you'd be happy if you weren't pursuing the impossible :)

Tessa: SHHHH it isn't impossible!

Brenna: no, that's not what I mean

I mean, she's trying to reach the threshold of impossible

Brenna: which means, she decimates every possible thing on her way there
How well they know me.

Anyway, I'll be doing NaNo with my Secret Novel that involves blood, beaches, and kissing (but not kraken). Under the rules of NaNo, the novel's supposed to be 50,000 words in order to be considered successful (almost half the length of SHIVER) so my goal is going to be a nice skeleton that I can go back to and flesh out after I finish FOREVER in a timely manner.

Unlike previous NaNo years, I now have 4 completed novels under my belt, and I sort of know myself and what I need to finish a novel a lot better than before. So while I'm not exactly cavalier, I'm . . . optimistic. I have my short story that I'm basing the novel off, I know my two main characters pretty well, I have a playlist in place, and I'm just about ready to write my two-page synopsis. I think that if I add "brainstormed about secondary characters" to that list, I'm actually about ready to start on November 1st.

So. I know that some of you guys are NaNoing. 'Fess up.

Words on Words by Maggie Stiefvater

NaNoWriMo: Yeah, I Said It