November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! If you’re like me, you’ve been hearing a lot about this lately. Word count updates. The triumph of writing a diffult scene, and the agony of being unable to write an “easy” scene. Late nights, early mornings, and stolen minutes here and there, all filled with writing something new and exciting.
And I’m not participating.
I thought about it. I have a story in its very early stages that would have been a great NaNoWriMo project. One I would have been very happy to finish. I should be doing NaNoWriMo! But I have a limited number of hours to devote to writing (don’t we all?), and I was hesitant to put all of my eggs into the NaNoWriMo basket.
Because there’s also my first book, which needs some attention. I’ve received some very helpful feedback from agents and beta readers and knew that there were changes that needed to be made to really make it shine. And there’s a group for that too! There are a couple of revision options out there, but I love Erin Shakespear and her RevMyNoMo idea.
But I’m not really doing that either.
Instead, I’m doing sort of a hybrid drafting/revising/outlining/blogging/critiquing/workshopping monster of a month that is fulfilling on many levels. (I’m still working on my clever abbreviation.) And although it seems scattered some days, it’s been really fulfilling overall.
To those who are doing NaNoWriMo, I wish you success and productivity in great measure! And to those who aren’t, I wish you the exact same thing! Who knows? Maybe 2013 will be our NaNoWriMo year…
What baskets are your writing eggs in this month? NaNoWriMo? RevMyNoMo? A crazy hybrid month like mine? How did you choose that course? And is it significantly different for you than the other 11 months of the year?
Thinking Through Our Fingers 
I'm doing NaNo for the first time. It's entirely possible it may kill me, but I was ready with a fully outlined idea (another first for me) and I wanted to try it.
So far…it's working! I have 20k in 12 days. But I'm still so new to writing that pretty much everything is a precedent with me. We'll see if I still think NaNo is a good idea at the end of the month!
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I'm NaNoing it up this year! So far I'm on track, but it's pretty easy to let a day go by without writing and watch the whole thing fall to pieces. Don't fret about doing NaNo this year. You've got your hands full and I firmly believe that any month can be a NoWriMo. The fun thing about November is the camaraderie. So just let me know when you want to do a novel in 30 days and I'll join you.
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