Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It's NaNoWriMo Time!!

Tip of the Day: if you want to be NaNoWriMo buddies with me, my username is em.ma16. Go ahead and friend me.

It's that time of year again when the leaves are changing, fall is coming to an end, everyone is preparing for the big holidays, and almost 120,000 people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Insane.

And yet I can't seem to step away from National Novel Writing Month.

For the last three years, I've done NaNoWriMo in some capacity. Usually in a modified version, because November is the travel month in the Marshall household. This year, however, there are no trips and no excuses.

So this month, I'm whipping out a work-in-progress and am going to attempt this again. Except I'm working on a Middle Grade novel, so my goal is around 30K (which is slightly more manageable).

I've yet to "win" by completing all 50,000 words, but every time I participate I still walk away feeling I accomplished something. Either finishing a draft, pushing myself to write more, or making myself work on hard scenes that seem impossible during other parts of the year. Getting motivation to work on a project is priceless and having buddies and friends to share it with is even better. I love the feeling of seeing my word meter go up everyday and trying to reach my word-count goals for that day or week.

I highly recommend it, even if you don't want to do the whole 50K. Just set your own goals and pace yourself accordingly.

So who out there is NaNoing this year?

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

3 comments:

Kate Fall said...

Yeah! You go Emily! I'm cheering on all my friends who are going for it this November. Keep your houses cluttered and your word processing files open!!

Lisa Schroeder said...

I love that you make nanowrimo work for you, and use it as a chance to push yourself to complete a project, even if you don't get to 50,000 words. I have too much going on this year, but I'd love to try it some time. :)

DeenaML said...

This year my modified NaNo is to polish/"lightly" revise one MG and one YA novel..... So far I'm on track! Good luck with your MG -- can't wait to read it.