NaNo Day 2:
LR—13 words—edited and shipped to editor!
LH—1733 words
The winner of yesterday’s free download is at the bottom of this post!
Also, tonight I’ll be chatting live at Romance Reviews Today chat room.
Join me if you can! ~DD
NaNoWhat-Oh?
or “How to Write a Novel In One Easy Step”
Today is Day 2 of the National Nuttiness that is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Every November, thousands of writers across the globe band together to write novels. The objective is simple: write 50,000 words, and write them during the month of November: from Midnight-Oh-One on the first through Eleven-Fifty-Nine on the thirtieth, write and write and write. And write.
And write.
How is this useful? Or sane? And is 50,000 words of quickly-written stream-of-consciousness any good?
That’s not the point. The point is, to write the first draft of a novel. It’s a helluva lot easier to edit a novel if it’s written, and you can’t sell it if yeh ain’t written it!
The thinking behind it is sound – most of us have extremely well-developed Critics that love to ding us for grammar, spelling, turns of phrase, plotlines (or lack thereof), and anything else we might be daft enough to set fingers to keyboard. The point of NaNoWriMo, therefore, is to develop a good head of steam and let the momentum take you through (or around, under, over, or whatever) the Critic so that you can actually get through to the end: and, in the process, write a novel.
After all, ask any marathoner: it doesn’t matter if you win. It matters if you finish.
So, how do you start? Visit the website above, and sign up for an account. See if you can find others you know who are NaNo-ing (I’m a.catherine.noon), and add them to your friends list. Write a blurb for your baby novel, and maybe even share an excerpt – no, it doesn’t matter if the excerpt makes it into the final draft. The point is to have fun!
Next, find your home region. (If you don’t have one, use mine – ChiWriMo!) The regions host all sorts of events, including “write-ins” – events where writers gather to write together! It’s loads of fun, and nice to be around people who don’t glaze over when you start talking about the writing process. Then, write. Track your progress daily on the NaNo site, and git goin’!
Talk to you in December! I’ve gotta get my word count in!
A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder
Blog Website
Watch for BURNING BRIGHT, coming from Samhain Publishing September, 2011!
The winner of a free download of Stone’s Embrace is…Becky Ward! Becky, congratulations, and email me to arrange delivery of your prize.
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Thanks, Delilah, for giving us the space for a guest post! We really appreciate it!
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thank you for the great post and the encouragement.
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Thanks, Tammy! I’m glad you liked. I hope you decide to try NaNo; it’s great fun!
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Write, ladies, WRITE!!! 🙂 And congrats, Becky–happy reading!
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Thanks, Fedora! We’re writin’!! 🙂 You too!
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Hi! Thanks for stopping by and chatting with us! Im looking forward to all of the books that are going to come from this. 😉
Congrats Becky!
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Hi, Shadow! I’m grateful to be here. Delilah is generous to share her time and experience.
I know what you mean about all the books from NaNo – it’s an amazing time. Many of the writers I talk to don’t necessarily use their NaNo later, but it unlocks their process. Others take it through to completion. I think it depends on the person.
But one things is clear – there’s a lot of energy generated!
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Great post! Look forward to hear what new stories authors will have created after this.
Delilah, I sent an email to you about winning. I am so happy about winning a copy of Stone’s Embrace. Thanks.
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Thanks for commenting, Becky! I’m really excited about it. My writing group here in Chicago is hosting a number of write-ins and I’m jazzed to see what people come up with.