Friday, November 5, 2010

It's Time for NaNo!

Today is the 5th day of NaNoWriMo, that crazy month of November when writers like me, who have no sense whatsoever, say goodbye for a month to family, friends, and reason, and begin to write.  Anything.  As long as it ends up with at least 50,000 words on the last day of November.  Of course, it should make some sense, but maybe that's not too important.

I did NaNo for the first time last year, and finished a pretty good middle grade novel...even if I do say so myself.  Then I said I would never do it again. Hmmm.
So why am I doing it now?  Well, after I finished my first novel course with ICL, my antagonist, who was a little ... er...witch, demanded to have her story told, so people would know why she was a little...witch.  But right after I finished the first novel course, I decided to do a second one, so I could get some help with my historical novel.  Consequently, the first NaNo didn't get edited or revised ( yet), and Celine's story didn't get told.

Doing NaNo this year seemed a good excuse for me to get Celine's story going, even though the historical novel isn't finished.  My husband, kids, grandkids, and Corgi all think I'm crazy, but...hey, it isn't the first time for that thought !

The trick is to just write...whatever thoughts come to mind.  I would imagine this is difficult for writers who like to outline every chapter before they begin a new story, but for pantsters like me, it's old hat.  My main problem is that I'm too much of a perfectionist to "just write" and not stop to "fix" mistakes in spelling or grammar or anything else, for that matter.  That's supposed to be a no-no for NaNo...um, catchy, dontcha' think...a NoNo for NaNo !  Wow, I'm good!  ( actually, I'm just a little punchy right now :(  )

Anyway, every NaNo writer knows we're not supposed to take the time now to fix our mistakes...SPAG or anything else.  But I'm one of these people who cannot live with myself and go on past a glaring error.  So I must admit I take the time to backtrack and do corrections.  Hopefully, this time I'll still come out with at least my 50,000 words...last year, I barely made it at 50,124 or something like that.

I'll try to post at least once a week during this month.  Who knows, I may even post a bit about the story as it goes along.  No promises, though.  In the meantime, for all of you equally insane writers, the best of luck with NaNo, and may we all end up with something understandable and at least 50,000 words!

Until next time,
that's a wrap.