November
is almost upon us. And for writers, that means one thing: National Novel
Writing Month, or NaNo!
As
I explained in Monday’s blog, that’s the challenge to jot down the first 50,000
words to your next novel. What I didn’t mention is that I’ve never done it.
That’s
not to say I’ve never completed the challenge so much. It’s more like I’ve
never started it in the first place. In past years, I was always in the middle
of a manuscript when November rolled around and unwilling to set it aside to
start something new.
However,
lo and behold, October dawned to the perfect situation… I had published all the
books I’d planned on publishing for the year… I knew I’d soon complete the
third draft of the first book I’ll be publishing in 2016 – Faerietales 4: Wing and Dagger… and I had finished up
my research for Designing America,
the story of the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, and the sequel to Maiden America.
It
was perfect!
Admittedly,
since that was October 1st and there was no way I could go a whole month
without writing anything, I started Faerietales 5: Flights of Fancy as a test run to see if NaNo was possible. I’ve
always been skeptical of anyone apart from professional authors – who get paid
to write all day – being able to write 50,000 words in one month.
Turns
out though, it is possible! I started officially working on Flights of Fancy on October 15, and as
of October 25, I was 26,000 words in. That’s an average 2,363 words per day!
Moreover, I even had a social life during that time and worked some projects
for my freelance business, Innovative Editing.
Admittedly,
I’m also single and my day job involves sometimes significant downtime. So that
certainly didn’t hurt. Neither did the fact that writer’s block hasn’t kicked
in yet. I’m on a roll!
I
don’t expect Designing America to be
anywhere so easy, in large part because it’s a historical novel and I’m going
to have to be flipping through my research books every other second to make
sure I remember my facts correctly. Moreover, there’s no pressure right now; it’s
not NaNo. Come next week, I might be making myself sick trying to make
something happen that’s just not meant to be.
The
50,000-word deadline, I mean, not the novel itself. That’s happening one way or
the other.
