I’m always excited when November rolls around, not only because it means we’re near Christmas and I can legit start buying Christmas presents, but because it’s NaNoWriMo month!
I LOVE NaNoWriMo! I think it’s a brilliant idea and an amazing thing to participate in. For those that don’t know NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and the aim is to get 50,000 words down during November. You can write every day, you can write whenever you have the time, but the goal is to get that 50k down by the 30th November, which is very roughly speaking, a first draft. And it’s still not too late to sign up!
Last year I managed to complete a first draft in the new cosy mystery series I’ve been planning, and this year I’ve plotted out the second one for my NaNo project. I’m a plotter, but it doesn’t mean you can’t participate if you haven’t got a plot in mind. You can just write to practice and learn the craft, you can write and see what comes out!
The idea is just to encourage you to sit down and get something written. If you end up with the first draft of a novel then brilliant! If you don’t that’s fine too. If you only get half of it down because life gets in the way then that’s okay, just try not to let the momentum slip. Get back on track and keep going as soon as you can because it’s much easier to edit a bad first draft than it is a blank page! Always remember that plot holes, bad characterisation and poor word choice can all be fixed afterwards. Just get as much down as possible!
One of the things people often say to me when I tell them I’m a writer is, ‘I’ve always wanted to write a novel!’ Have you? Then do it! Now’s your chance! Make the commitment and at the end of the month you’ll be so proud of yourself that you did!
Sign up here: https://nanowrimo.org/
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
Are you doing NaNo this month? I’d love to connect with you on Twitter (@KatieGAuthor), or comment below and let me know how you’re doing!