I promised myself I’d start a novel on my birthday. I just feel like there’s too much else to do, and well, maybe I’ll get started soon. That promised start-date was almost two months ago, and my little inner baby is starting to say: “HEY! You Promised!” so I guess I AM ready to write a novel. Fortunately for me, November is National Novel Writing Month – or NaNoWriMo as it’s called by those of us in the know. I’m registered to participate in NaNoWriMo. It’s free, and once you register, you can even find a group of local participants for this year. My local library is hosting a full day write in tomorrow, to help get our area participants going! You can learn more and register here. Once you register, and verify your account, come find me at http://nanowrimo.org/participants/julia-g-roberts. You can add me as a buddy, and we can keep track of each other’s word counts and discussions in forums.
Every year since 1999, hundreds of thousands of people start a novel on November 1st and finish it (50,000 words) by the end of November. You can join the community of writers across the nation, and just start writing. Then go to the website daily, and post your word count. You can even “win.” If you achieve the 50,000 word goal, and submit it by midnight on November 30th, you get a certificate and your name and book title appear on the site among the winners. Other writers’ goodies are promised. (My idea of a good trick or treat!)
Many NaNoWriMo books have been published by big and small publishing houses. This method of pushing through to the end before you indulge in edits is a well-established writing technique, endorsed for instance by Steven King, among others.
This solves three big reasons that people say they can’t get around to writing “their” book – they say they need time and a reason, a deadline, and community. I’m going to be creating and sharing Four novel writing tools to share with all of you, as I write this novel. I hope some of you might get inspired and start writing to meet that 50,000 word goal. (That’s 1,667 words a day, or 1,725 if you want to skip writing on Thanksgiving Day, and 2,500 words a day if you only want to write weekdays and skip Thanksgiving Day.)
Join me in this exhilarating challenge. I’ll be posting to the Decoding Creativity FB page, and hope you will too, especially if you’re undertaking the great NaNoWriMo challenge. (This post is about 450 words and I’d have to write five times this daily… doable!)