NaNoWriMo Thoughts

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National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as it is affectionately called, is coming. Have you heard of  it? I think it's a brilliant idea. It's an online based creative writing project. Participants are challenged to write 50,000 of a novel (either a 50,000 word length one of the first 50,000 of one longer) from November 1 to November 30.

The goal of the project is to get people to write. It gives you a specific goal (50,000 words) to be completed in a specific time frame. 

I had no idea what NaNoWriMo was a year ago, but now that I've delved a little into the writing world, I am familiar with it. And since we are only a couple weeks away from November, NaNo is getting a lot of buzz around the internet. A lot of things I've read about have said it's great because it gets you in the habit of writing every day. Most writers, I have discovered, work 40 hours a week (or more) doing something else. We love to write. We may not be published yet (some are). We have jobs and spouses and kids and houses and other responsibilities. We all want to write, and have to write. But we struggle with making it a habit.

NaNoWriMo is all about completion over perfection. Which is perfect really, because, as they say "writing is rewriting." Getting the first draft on paper is (for me and so many others) the hardest part. Once that piece of crap first draft is there, you have something to work with. You can add and delete and mold that draft into something truly great.

I so badly want to do NaNoWriMo, but I'm torn. I really want to keep working on my fantasy story rewrite. But I also love the allure of something new. I don't know if I could do 50,000 words in 30 days (1650+ words a day is easy some days, hard on others). I have a husband who I love dearly, plus the gym, and a job....excuses? Sure. Reality? That too. 

I have a ton of ideas for stories in my head (oh so many, and they must mate like rabbits because new ones pop up every day). But I don't know if I have one solid enough to make a book out of.

But, I love (LOVE!) the idea of trying to turn a loose idea into a book. To take one of my 5-word-Wednesday characters and let the story fly. (Pumpkin Spice Girl got a ton of love from friends...perhaps she will get her own full length novel? New Adult genre! So fun!) So maybe I'll do NaNoWriMo, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll do my 'write a novel in a month' in January or March. We'll see.

Though, admittedly, Pumpkin Spice Girl is dying for her own story...