Also known as Oh God, What Have I Gotten Myself Into Month!
It’s that time of year when coffee houses are suddenly fuller. It’s not a sudden influx of people looking for their seasonal pumpkin spice fix. No, they’re all toting laptops or tablets or notebooks. Gathering in clusters or tucking themselves into a corner, they type away for all they are worth, trying to hit the illusive daily goal of 1,667 words per day for the next thirty days. Yes, it’s National Novel Writing Month, and I am participating once again.
I have a mixed history of success with NaNoWriMo, with more failures than successes. Some of the challenges I’ve faced during the month are illness, my computer keyboard breaking, and then there was the adoption of the Terrible Trio. But the few successes were sweet. Earlier versions and the second half of what became second half of Chaos Wolf were written during NaNoWriMo. This month’s project is going to get a good start on its sequel, Chaos Hunt.
My normal goal is to write 500 words a day. I hit that figure more often than not when I do write. My problem right now is writing daily. So I’ve figured out how to write over three times my normal output. That involves scaling back on/cutting out some of my normal activities – like this blog.
I’m not going silent. For the next three weeks, I’ll be sharing the guest posts featured on other blogs when Chaos Wolf was released. Friday Links will continue. I’ll also be posting a quick blurb about my progress. If you want to follow my progress in realtime, you can friend me on the NaNoWriMo website. If you poke around, you will find old versions of Chaos Hunt listed in my past novels. This year I’m starting over from scratch and working in a few new ideas I had, as well as the lessons I learned while writing Chaos Wolf.
Now it’s time for me to settle in, apply my fingers to the keyboard, and make my word count for the day.
