NaNoWriMo Approaches

And I can't wait to start writing!

I'm almost done with the prep challenge even though the month isn't over yet. I keep doing things ahead of schedule and that's good because I also have other writing to do before November starts. And that writing will help me since I really want to start writing already and writing other things will keep me a little distracted until the very minute November starts, when I plan to start writing.

I have picked what I'm going to write at least.  I picked the Young Adult novel. It was a bit unexpected considering it was one I had put on the "to do later" list with a few novels being set as ones to write first but I'm really looking forward to writing the story. I think even though I didn't win with young adult stories before, this time I'm going to make it.

Plus, I am going to do something different this year. I am going to work on two novels. One I prepared using the NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge and the other is just in my head. No preparation at all. With any luck and a lot of hard work, I should write 100,000 words this year or more, and if I get burned out from one, I can always work on the other, which is something I struggle with when I write 50k really fast; burn out. I even have titles to use for now on both of the novels, Yay!

The current plan is to write:
OttoHahn in E Minor (YA futuristic type novel)
Against the Grain (Adult Romance novel)



Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?
What are you writing?

IWSG post on Finishing and NaNoWriMo

It's that time again, Insecure Writer's Support Group is up and ready to talk today. The topic I've chosen is the "can I ever finish anything" insecurity that I often have since I write so many novels at one time and have nothing ready to submit after 5+ years of writing. I chose this topic because even though I did basically the same topic, there is a special portion this month because NaNoWriMo is just around the corner and is one where I've both succeeded and failed in finishing novels.

Last time I focused on finishing in order to send out, but let's pull back the reigns a little bit. Writing anything above 50,000 words can be difficult to finish and I'm so easily distracted. When I first started writing the goal for NaNoWriMo of writing 50,000 words in one month seemed daunting and in less than 15 days down right impossible. Back in 2006 I had only written poetry and a few attempts at short stories, nothing much past 1,000 words. So, the task of finishing a full length novel was hard to figure out and it showed in my few thousand total the first year. I haven't finished that story either. But what I've learned from the failed years at NaNoWriMo is simply to keep writing.

Because my third year I not only wrote 50,000 words in 30 days but I also finished the novel a couple of weeks later. I had my first finished first draft ever back in 2008 and it was awesome. I haven't edited it yet but I still love the story. And it proved to me I could finish a draft.

Then I wrote 67,000 words in March of 2010, proving to myself that with the right characters and story, I could do even more words. That novel even is finished and waiting to be edits with the highest word count I've finished in one story to this date (90,000). Woot! Sure, in 2009 I wrote basically nothing but it's okay.

Last year I managed to write 50,000+ words in 13 days. Sure, I haven't finished the novel yet but it's one that I'm writing just for me. Being an epic fantasy novel, I've still got another 50k to go and I plan to but being stalled is okay with me.

And here we are again. NaNoWriMo 2011 starts in less than a month and I will admit, the doubt is still here. Yes, after 67k in one month and 50k in 13 days, I still doubt that I'll finish. That doubt surfaces every year. I wonder if I will make the 50k goal and I wonder if I will finish the story either during the month (which I have never done before) or at least some time after.


Do you have any insecurities with finishing and NaNoWriMo?

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