I’m admitting here for all to read that I am going to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (November). For those of you who have never heard of this, it’s a forum where thousands of writers commit to writing 50,000 words, the size of a Harlequin size book, in 30 days.
I’m not sure why the powers that be chose November for this – especially since the U.S. participants celebrate their Thanksgiving during the last crucial phase of this challenge. But it could be something to do with the lousy weather and how everyone is huddled inside preparing for winter. What better time to write, write, write!
I’ve never been at the right spot in my writing to do this. You have to have the idea in mind, maybe a rough outline of what will happen in your plot, but you can’t have actually started any writing on it yet. Usually by this time of year, I’ve got 2-3 months of work on a new story done.
This time, however, I’ve been revising an older story and not even sure what to do next. Suddenly this historical story that had been playing around in my mind for a while came to life. So I started jotting down plot ideas, character sketches and the story started to take shape. This is even stranger to me because I’m a contemporary writer.
So I’m taking a leap on 2 counts – writing outside my genre and writing 50,000 words in a month! Hopefully at the end of November I’ll have a viable book on my hands.
Good luck to all you writers out there attempting this challenge with me! See you in December!