NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH - NOVEMBER

Every November all over the world there are people,like me, who take up the challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November.  National Novel Writing Month is commonly known as NaNoWriMo, there are many writers in Australia and over 100 in Gippsland who take this challenge.  Maybe not every year, but regularly.  I think it's a way to stretch your writing skills, it is certainly a time to try out new writing techniques and if on the 30th November you have 50,000+ words registered then you 'win'.  What you win is up to the individual, it can be the fact that for 30 days you wrote words every day, and that would amount to 1,000+ each day, which is a great achievement in itself.  You do get a 'certificate' and yet it's the stimulation that hooked me.  In 2016 I took the challenge and finished up with 50,000 words which finally translated into a 34,000+ word children's middle grade novel, that's for children around 9-11 years.  It was great fun, although the many drafts and edits since then probably didn't rank as fun.  The manuscript is currently with two publishers and who knows it might get published.

This November I'm taking the challenge again because I want to try writing a different genre.  In August I entered a crime short story competition and have been shortlisted.  I won't know the result until the award dinner late in November.  I will keep you posted.  I learnt I can write crime, well in a short story length (under 5,000 words), so I thought I'd take the challenge with NaNoWriMo and see what happens.

The plot is drafted, that characters have been fleshed out, research has been done on the era and I'm just about ready to roll.  NaNoWriMo allows you to prepare, as you would before you started writing at any other time.  However at 8am on November 1st I will be sitting here writing the first chapter.  Most of it is in my mind because most of it has been written whilst on the treadmill at the gym.  I do some of my best scene writing on that dastardly  treadmill.

Here's the link in case you want to check it out.  You'd need to start pre-planning soon otherwise you won't be ready.  And bye the way there's a junior NaNoWriMo, so if you know a young person who can't stop writing introduce him or her to the website for next year.