Do You NaNoWriMo?

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November is NaNoWriMo month for many writers. What's NaNoWriMo you ask? National Novel Writing Month.

In the month of November, writers commit to trying to write 50,000 words of a novel. Most people commit to writing every day. It's been several years since I've done it, but I'm doing it this year.

Normally I shy away from NaNoWriMo because it's November, a month when my calendar fills up, making it hard to achieve the 50K word goal. This year, I do have quite a bit on my schedule, but, barring unforeseen circumstances, I believe I can write most days. There will be some days when it's not possible, so I'll have to work hard on the other days to up my creativity.

For those of you unfamiliar with the effort it takes to write 50,000 words, let me put this in perspective for you. Most novels run 70,000-100,000 words. My genre tends to run 90,000-100,000 words. Writing 50K gets you to 50-70% completion of a first draft. Not a finished manuscript. A first draft tends to be messy and needs lots of revisions before it's ready for submission or publication.

My posts this month will be short and focused on NaNoWriMo. That way, I can focus on the bigger goal of 50K words.

If you're participating this year, please feel free to comment on this post and add me as a writing buddy. I'm listed as vbabbie which is also my Twitter handle.

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