November is NaNoWriMo! Or, to use the full title: National Novel Writing Month! If you’re not familiar with that, it’s a challenge for writers, aspiring and otherwise. The goal is to write a full novel, or 50,000 words, during the month of November.
Last year, I took part in this challenge for the first time, writing 50,000 words in my YA fantasy, Viridia (which I finished a few weeks into December). It was my attempt to jump-start my writing, to actually accomplish something, and to prove that I could write at that rate.
It worked.
I didn’t sign up on the website or anything, but I made the goal and kept track of it. I updated some people and kept myself accountable, and I pulled it off. It was a great feeling.
As November approaches this time, I’m in the middle of my current novel. As I write this, I’m at 54,530 words, with a goal of 60,000 by the end of this week. While I’ve been working hard, I haven’t kept myself to a strong pace.
Ever since Hurricane Harvey derailed things, I’ve been slowly working my writing pace and schedule back into place. I’m generally achieving 1,100+ words per day this week.
My goal for NaNoWriMo this year is to finish this novel. If I write 50K in November, the book will reach 110K. I don’t think it’ll be quite that long (though I could be wrong). Therefore, if I accelerate to the pace of 1600+ words per day for November, I should be able to finish.
I’ll update the blog with the word count as I find time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out why this supporting character feels so creepy every time he walks into a room.