November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as we cool kids call it. The gist is to write your tukhus off the entire month, with the goal of having a 50,000-word novel in the can by Nov. 30.

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I took my sweet time with my first book. But now I’m accountable to people that only make money when I do, so the luxury of ease is one I no longer have. Therefore, this month I’m taking a whole-hearted shot at NaNoWriMo, after years of threatening to do it and failing to even start.

Is it gimmicky? Sure. And it certainly has its critics, like these folks. Such people have valid points, and I agree with a lot of what the naysayers are saying. But let’s not get too critical here. I’m not embarking on this project with the hope that I’ll have a complete, polished, well-done novel by month’s end. Anything but! For me, NaNoWriMo is a way to develop a daily writing routine, and a way to hit the ground running on a project that has been nagging me for months to be written. So what I will have at the end of 30 days will be the bones of a project that I can shape into a solid product.

I spent plenty of time doing the “pre” stuff – developing characters and story, finding the voice for my protagonist, hashing out scenes…all the stuff you do before you really begin writing. In fact, I’ve been doing that for quite some time. A lot of people don’t seem to do this. They wait until Nov. 1 and hope the story unfolds as their fingers fly across the keyboard. I disagree with that approach, but hey, whatever works for ya.

It’s early in the month, and so far so good. No backtracking. No heavy editing. Just storytelling. At the moment, I’m even ahead of schedule. We’ll see what I post on the 30^th! Wish me luck.

Are any of you trying your hand at NaNoWriMo?