National Novel Writing Month 2019

So there’s this crazy thing that some writers do. They try to write 50,000 words in 30 days, during the month of November. For some writers, 50,000 words is a full manuscript, but sometimes it is only part of a manuscript, since some genres can be up to 100,000 words.

There is an entire organization (NaNoWriMo.org) that has sprung up around this endeavor, to help authors track their output and connect with other writers for camaraderie and support. If you “win” NaNo (reach 50,000 words) you get a badge to place on your website and a lot of kudos from your fellow NaNoWriMo participants.

Now, you don’t have to officially sign up for NaNoWriMo to participate. I have wanted to do it for some time, but I felt like I could never realistically do it. 50,000 words breaks down to 1,667 per day, and I balked at thinking I could do that.

But this year I decided to be crazy, and try it. Unofficially, so no pressure. I’ve been wanting to write the second book in my Oz series, but never seem to be able to get to it. My Oz books are middle grade, which are about 50,000 words generally speaking. My first book was just under 60,000 words, and I tend to draft short, so a 50,000 word goal will likely encompass an entire first draft of book 2.

I’m making good progress, much to my surprise. This is certainly not a pace I could keep up for the entire year, but it is helping me see how much more I could be doing than I am.

Anyone else doing NaNo—officially or not?

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