National Novel Writing Month

Today is the 1st of November, which means it’s the start of National Novel Writing Month! Never heard of NaNoWriMo? You’re in for a treat. It’s a mad, glorious gambit to write 50,000 words during the month of November, which roughly translates to writing 1666 words every day.

A friend introduced me to NaNoWriMo back in 2004. I’m a die hard plotter, which means that I like to have every detail worked out before I start writing a story or novel, but I decided to embrace the spirit of NaNoWriMo and write a new book with only the briefest of outlines I’d jotted down on some paper during my lunch break at work.

That first year I won NaNoWriMo by reaching my 50,000 word goal, and surpassing it, and eventually had a mess of a completed novel called ‘The Mark of the Wolf’. The next year I wrote a sequel to it, resulting in another NaNoWriMo win, and a much better book, because I spent the month of October planning it out.

2006 I wrote a horror novel and completed over 70,000 words.

After that, my National Novel Writing Month successes stopped. I planned to write a novel while traveling around New Zealand for the month of November in 2007, but nothing came of it (New Zealand was amazing though). Despite other moments of passing interest, including signing up to a group last year, I never did another NaNoWriMo.

Until now. I’m back, baby! This year I’m committed to writing 50,000 words during the month of November (my personal goal is actually 90,000 words) and I’ve returned to where it all began, with a fantasy novel.

Have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo? Perhaps you’ve particapted before? Will you be taking part this year? Let me know so we can support each other on this journey.