NaNoWriMo is only 2 days away! I just learned about this amazing crazy month about, well…a month ago! I decided not to cheat and use this as an opportunity to edit my current novel, but as a way to get a new idea down on paper. I’ve had this idea for a long time, but have not wanted to work on any other novel but my current piece that I decided to not the idea down and save it for after I’ve finished my first novel.
Once I found out the rules for National Novel Writing Month, writing a brand new, 50,000 word book from scratch opened the door wide for me to be able to get out my first “shitty draft” (to quote Anne Lamott) of this new idea while still keeping my first novel as my main focus. 50,000 words is extremely intimidating! EXTREMELY!
I did discover, in a dry run using a writing prompt, that it may be doable. I sat down with a timer, my writing prompt (thank you Reddit!), and my laptop. I set the timer for an hour and began! I was able to write 2,379 words in that hour!! I was shocked because when the timer went off, I was sure I had under 1,000. I had stopped so many times to think up the right word or the right way to continue that I knew I had wasted precious writing seconds. I guess I was wrong.
I wanted to experiment with an hour because I was recently in a car accident that caused a bad concussion and has limited my ability to be on my computer for long periods of time. I know that spending more than an 1-2 hours a day is unrealistic at this point so I wanted to see if I could come even close to the 50,000 mark on 30 days. Maybe I can! Maybe if I give myself a set schedule and stick to it, maybe, just maybe I can get out my first shitty draft of a new novel that will be ready to revisit in a few months for editing!
Participating in NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments or add me as a writing buddy on NaNoWriMo.org. My author name is rwfranklin. If I can do it, so can you! Let’s keep each other accountable and give each other the encouragement we need!
I think my notebook cover says it best:
