Have you heard about NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place every November. The goal: write a novel in a month (or, at least, write 50 000 words of it).
I first heard about it a little over three years ago, and was immediately skeptical of the premise: write 50 000 words in a month?!
Pshaw! Not likely!
I tried it anyways, and did not succeed. I tried again the year after, and again, failed. This year, I was back at it, and came in woefully under-count, as I had two years running.
Am I disappointed in my results?
Well, yes. Not at all! Each November for the past three years, I managed to add thousands of words to my various novels. I didn’t come close to 50 000, but thousands of words are certainly better than none. This year, I used a good portion of October to world build my latest novel, then I managed to get over 20 000 words into it by the end of November. Not too bad, considering my motivation recently had been lagging (see last post!).
I can’t think of any reason why I won’t participate again next year too. Who knows – maybe 2016 will be the year I reach 50K!
Regardless of my result this year, NaNoWriMo served not only to springboard my next novel, but also got e re-energized with my writing. I’ve got new ideas, new directions, and looming writing competition deadlines to work towards, and I’m looking forward to all of it. 🙂
First step: back on the agent search wagon.
I stopped submitting queries for the month of November, so that I could focus on my writing.
Now that we’re into December, I set myself the goal of getting my third batch of queries to agents out this past weekend, and I succeeded! (While simultaneously neglecting entertaining the kids. Gotta love multi-tasking.) Coincidentally, I also receive a request for a partial manuscript from one of the agents from batch two, which was yet another boost to my motivation and confidence. Things are starting to get rolling again!
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