It's almost that time of year again! Thanksgiving? Christmas? Snowy weather? What is she talking about? National Novel Writing Month! For the whole month of November writers across the world commit to writing a 50,000 word novel. If you write every day that comes out to about 1,667 words a day. I did NaNoWriMo for the first time last year and I won (meaning I wrote a 50,000 word novel). Last year I attempted to write a young adult book, but it was very difficult for me to write stylistically. This year I hope to write something I'm more interested in and something more usable for me-- which means this year I'm planning to write an essay collection. I have ideas and admittedly some essays to start with. Even though I have some things written already I'm going to edit them during November to make them fit with the collection I plan to write.
I was more successful than I planned last year and I think part of my success was having a writing buddy. My boyfriend joined me in NaNoWriMo and we wrote together every night. We really encouraged each other and it was great to have someone to bounce ideas off of. If you're participating in NaNoWriMo this year I would really encourage you to find a writing buddy--even if its just someone on the Internet. A lot of writers outline before NaNoWriMo. I did write an outline last year, but this year I don't plan to. I've kept random thoughts in various journals throughout the past year and I plan on using those as my ideas.
Who else is participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Feel free to add me as buddy-- my screenname is ashbrux and I promise I'll add you back! What worked well for you last year if you did it?
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