It’s that time again! It’s a month that I look forward to every year, where I can jointhousands of others across the globe in rapidly racking up the word count onour newest novels. For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMofor short) is a challenge to write 50,000 words (or the length of a shortnovel) between November 1st and midnight on November 30th.That translates to about 1,666 words every day, which is no small feat.
I have participated for the last two years, and both years I‘won’, which means that I was able to reach 50,000 words before thedeadline. The first year, I wrote thefirst draft of a sequel to “The Canticle Kingdom” called “The Frozen Globe”,which should still be on the horizon. For my second year, I wrote most of the anovel called “Starspire” which I finished in another 20 days to round it out atabout 80,000. It’s my personal record at50 days from zero to novel.
This year, I’m going to do the reverse of last year. By the end of October, I should have about30,000 words towards the as yet unnamed sequel to “The Last Archangel”. DuringNaNoWriMo, I will write the rest of the 50,000 words to finish the first draftof the novel by the end of November. I’mvery excited about it.
You may ask if with such speed you see a drop inquality. The great thing about NaNoWriMois that you are allowed and even encouraged to do extensive planningbeforehand. Some authors are pure “discoverywriters” and just want to see where the story takes them. Though I do this to a point, I find that withNaNoWriMo, it is “plan or perish”. If you are going to write that many words ina single month, you need to have an ideawhere you are headed or you might find yourself 50,000 words richer, but in thewrong direction.
So, hop on board! Visit http://www.nanowrimo.org tosign up and take part. In the comments,let me know what you are planning to write.
Books by Michael D. Young 
Very cool! I also wanted to write and say that YOU are very cool. Though only in cyberspace– I count you as one of my favorite people. And favorite writers. How could I get a signed copy of Canticle Kingdom? could I buy one on Amazon, send it to your place and you sign it? this is top on my Christmas list this year.
Thanks! Your comments really make my day. If you'd like, I have some copies of The Canticle Kingdom on hand. If you want to pay me $12 for the book and $3 for shipping, I would gladly sign one and ship it to you. You can send me your shipping address to thecanticlekingdom (at) gmail (dot) com. You can pay through a check, or I prefer PayPal. Just let me know!
I signed up this year for NaNoWriMo -my first time ever! I'm excited to meet the other local Wrimos (there's actually a meet-n-greet this Saturday at the Dragon's Keep comic shop downtown [Provo]). As for what I'm going to write: YA contemporary fantasy. I'm always hesitant to explain what my ideas are though (especially in cyberspace) -I'm possessive of them and I'm afraid somebody else could do a far better job than me at making those ideas into stories! Oh, my insecurities! But I will say that the story is full of yumminess.
This is an awesome post. I am trying to figure out my book writing too, and you helped me see that I could still participate by doing the rest of my story too, instead of just starting it. Thanks a million on your advice, because I was thinking of not participating because I am 80 pages in to my story.
hey I think I might want a copy too… are you in utah?