As #NaNoWriMo Advances, I Am Getting My Ass in Gear 😱
WELL. It will soon be time for the annual write-fest of #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), during which writers challenge themselves to finish the entire first draft of a novel in just one month. I’ve known about this formidable challenge for a couple of years, but in previous years, I haven’t gone for it because I’ve been too busy arsing around / panicking / believing I couldn’t possibly do it / getting distracted by other things.
The novel idea I will be working on is one that has been in my head for almost two years at this point. I spent so much time going back and forth with it – changing my plans day by day, realising that certain things were never going to work, afflicted by moments of intense self-doubt, putting the whole thing away for months on end and doing nothing to move the story forward – but now, at long last, I can say that I’m confident about where I am going with it.
2018 will be my first attempt at squaring up to the NaNoWriMo beast. I have a plan in place, I know what I will be writing about (even if I’m not clear on every single detail of what might happen yet) and I’m finally ready to go for it, come what may. Good luck to every other writer out there who will be embarking on this wild ride too. ❤️
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"The novel idea I will be working on is one that has been in my head for almost two years at this point. " - welcome to my world!
I had a novel form in my head in 2003, and it's still there.
Another one has been there since summer of 1980. It doesn't want to gestate, grow, and get born. Set in Russia, requiring research - what do I know - except that I others who steep themselves in history will ALWAYS catch me in a blunder.
Well, let them. If the 1- and 2-star bandits come after me, so what.
That's what I tell myself before writing something other than a historical.
The beauty of NaNo is getting us to get scenes, dialogue, world-building, and the bare bones of a story down. Later, we get to amputate, or flesh out, or polish.. but first, we have to get the words out of our heads!
GOOD LUCK - I'll be on the same road as you!
Just read and rewiewed an ARC via AmazonVine, and I like this excerpt:
"You need to have a backbone and should be drawing a line in the sand around your values," Biel writes. Readers should "build a business so uniquely their own that even if everyone else tried to steal their concept, no one else could succeed because they wouldn't be able to execute the strategy the same way as the creator." The number one mistake he sees in publishers is "not having a fundamental understanding of who they are and why they exist." I'm reminded of Nick Cole, a brick-and-mortar, best selling author who broke with his publisher and went Indie rather than cave in to an editor's demand that he sanitize a certain premise.
A People's Guide to Publishing: Build a Successful, Sustainable, Meaningful Book Business by Joe Biel
Thank you very much, Carol! Wise words from Biel, indeed. I must check out his book.