National Novel Writing Month and Me

The rules: 

    *    Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.

• Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people’s works).
• Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you’re writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
• Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
• Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
• Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.

Write a novel in 30 days, really?  It’s never been a goal of mine, but each year when I hear someone mention this novel writing month of November I think about doing it.  This year, I felt a stronger itch to try it, so I signed up on the website to take on the task.  Where will I find time to do said novel writing?  My only pockets of uninterrupted time will be before work, at lunch and after the kids are asleep.  I will need to write 1,667 words a day to stay on track.  In theory this sounds manageable, let’s see what happens when life gets in the way.  To make this happen though, I will have to take a brief hiatus from my weekly blog postings for November.  There’s no possible way I’ll have enough time in my day to write my blog and a novel.  

While this doesn’t totally follow the rules, I already have a very rough draft of a teen novel that I will be expanding upon during these 30 days.  One day, shortly after I gave my two weeks notice at Barnes & Noble, I woke up with an idea for a book.  I bought two journals that inspired me and seemed to fit the theme of the story.  I hand wrote this rough draft in my car before work at my new job.  I was thrilled when I finished it and it felt more like a beginning than an ending.  Then I got busy being pregnant with Hunter, having Hunter, having two kids to take care of and I never got around to doing anything with the draft.  This book and it’s characters have been living in my head for almost two years now.  The story has been expanding in my head over time.  My draft is just a skeleton of the story, essentially it’s an extended outline, at least that is how I’m thinking about it in relation to this contest.  If I planned to just type up my draft this would be cheating, but that’s not what I’m going to do.  I might occasionally glance at the draft to keep myself on track, but I will be writing in anew and adding onto the story already in my head.   This month will be my motivation to bring these characters to life.

I touched on my dream of becoming a published author in my post, Eighty Years Old: Death Bed.  I want to be an example for my kids and have them see me passionate about something other than them and see me work to follow my dreams.  At this point, they are far too young to be aware of what their parents do, but eventually I’d like them to feel proud and impressed with my accomplishments or at least at my attempts!  

Here’s to hoping I can be disciplined enough to write at least 50,000 words in November and that my creative juices will flow abundantly.  See you in a month, when I emerge from my writing cave, with novel in hand.