Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?

Am I ready for NaNoWriMo? Um… probably as ready as I was last year and 2009 which is “no, not really” and certainly not as ready as 2008 when I’d plotted to almost every last detail but then I started writing and quickly learned (it was my first piece over c.3000 words) that once the characters take over the writer takes a back seat and enjoys the ride.

So this year I have a few character sketches and a vague idea of what they may be doing for the next 30 days but that’s about it, and I can’t wait! 🙂

Hitchhiker’s Guide author Douglas Adams is quoted as saying “I love deadlines… the sound as they woosh by” (or something like that) and I love deadlines for a different reason… because it gets me writing. This year will be more of a challenge for me because I only started this blog at the end of March this year and it eats up a lot of my time. Whilst my blog will still keep going during November (at full speed, I’m pleased to say) I will have to find new pockets of time to fit in my 1,667 words a day, but being me, I just know I will. Something will have to give; the scant-already social life… slightly shorter dog walks (sorry hound)… the Red Cross volunteering (I’m my local shop’s ‘book lady’) or some of my equally-scant hours of sleep, and my answering of emails will probably be slower, but I know that come 1st December I’ll look at my 50,000+ words and say, with a smile, “I did that”.

If you’ve considered NaNoWriMo, it’s not too late to take part… even mid-November isn’t too late if you’re a fast typer. The only aim is to write at least 50,000 words and if you do it you ‘win’. What exactly do you win? Nothing materialistic except for the words you’ve created.  I’ve done it three times, how hard can it be? Yes, OK, it’s pretty tough but 2009 I wrote 117,540 so it can be very rewarding… and heaps of fun too. I’m registered as Morgen Bailey so feel free to find me and ‘buddy’ me (especially as the NaNo system seems to have lost the ones I did have :)).

The aim of NaNoWriMo is for quantity over quality and whilst we all want a great book at the end of it, you can’t edit a blank page and given that we have to write almost 1,700 words a day there’s no time to edit as you go along. If I get stuck or know I want to add something later I put ‘MORE HERE’ and go back if there’s time at the end but I know I’ll be going through the whole thing three or four times afterwards anyway (times that by 117,540 words and you’ll know that writing my 2009 chick lit was where the hard work started).

Originated in San Francisco USA 13 years ago, they’re a non-profit organisation which relies on donations and the sales of goodies from their shop (I bought a t-shirt) and with hundreds of thousands of people participating it’s a community event for the usually-solitary life that a writer can have. Whilst you can join the online forums, meet in person with members of your local region (mine’s Milton Keynes, there isn’t a Northampton one) you can equally just sit and write your little heart out. I will probably aim for two of the three (you can guess which two) but I know that my little heart will be beating a little faster come the early hours of November 1st.

Morgen with an ‘e’ 🙂