Can You Write a Novel in 30 Days?

It’s that time again – National Novel Writing Month. Every year thousands of the aspiring sign up for the challenge - write a novel of at least 50,000 words in the 30 days of November.

Begun in 1999:

“The very first NaNoWriMo took place in July 1999, in the San Francisco Bay Area. That first year there were 21 of us, and our July noveling binge had little to do with any ambitions we might have harbored on the literary front. Nor did it reflect any hopes we had about tapping more fully into our creative selves. No, we wanted to write novels for the same dumb reasons twenty-somethings start bands. Because we wanted to make noise. Because we didn’t have anything better to do. And because we thought that, as novelists, we would have an easier time getting dates than we did as non-novelists.” -Chris Baty - NanoWriMo.org

In 2014, over 350,000 signed up for NanoWriMo.  I’ve been doing it since 2004, and although I’ve written the requisite words, I’ve never pursued the arduous task of editing a final marketable draft.  I had the excuse of a full-time job and life, but as I retired from Dilbertville early in 2013 I could not use that excuse that year or last. 

Now, it’s 2015 and I’ve signed up yet again.  I’m still painting, but I’m determined to get my daily word count in before I pick up a brush.  I may have to do what I did the first time – leave the house and write at a coffee shop, the corner bar and anywhere that’s not my studio.  The library is far too quiet for me.  I need noise.  Noise makes me focus harder on what I’m doing. 

The hardest part is all the parties and family functions that are strewn throughout the month of November.  I’ll be trying to exceed the daily 1667 words per day so I can bank enough to make up for those days, that just don’t make the mark. 

We had our kick-off for the Birmingham Region last night.  Big shout out and thanks to The Homewood Public Library for hosting us along with weekly write-ins and our Municipal Liaison, Jared “Tycho Brahe" Millet.  Anyone looking for me on Nano, my handle is perlesrose – my close friends will know it’s shorthand for perle(alias)rose.