Coming Down From the NaNoWriMo High

Finished my untitled NaNoWriMo project last night. Fell short of my 60,000 word goal and ended up with a first draft of 56,103 words. Hopefully, I'll make the word count in subsequent drafts.

Time to let this manuscript rest and work on another project. I like having more than one novel and/or screenplay to write or revise. If I get stuck on one, I can put it aside and go to another.

If this is your first NaNoWriMo, congratulations. I hope you made the 50,000-word goal. If not, no worries. What's important is that you wrote your story. Maybe you're still working on it. Many people go beyond the requisite 50,000 words. I used to think I could never write novels in the 70,000-word range. Ironically, novelists would tell me they couldn't write short. I still write short stories, as well as novellas. Sometimes, I adapt the stories into screenplays. It's all about making my stories do double-duty, if possible.

My goal for 2018 is to have at least two new books available. Con season is right around the corner, and I want to be ready.

50,000 Words and Beyond

Every November, for the past several years, I join thousands of writers around the world for that 30-day frenzy known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words during that time. Not a novel, per se, but a pretty darn good start.

A couple of my short novels were even published: Death Sword and The Ripper's Daughter. (I have the rights back to the latter, which I will be putting up on Amazon, B&N, and Kobo, hopefully before the end of the year. But that's another story.)

Anyway, last year, I wrote a 65,000-word political  thriller in 21 days. This year, I wrote 68,000 words in the same length of time. And I'm still writing. Today, I should reach 72,000 with my paranormal suspense, the overall goal being 75,000-80,000 words. And I plan to finish this new novel by November 30.

Why push myself? I don't know. Guess I take it as a challenge. I wanted to get the 50,000 words written as early as possible, and 5,000 words a day seemed reasonable. After that, I dropped the writing down to 2,000 words daily. All that, while revising another book and working on another project (not writing related).

Although NaNoWriMo is almost over, you can check out the site year round. So if you've always wanted to write a novel, and needed a boost, NaNoWriMo might very well be worth checking into.

Happy Writing!