Is it National Novel Writing Month again already?!

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is growing nearer and I have decided to participate again this year. The first time I attempted to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days for NaNoWriMo was back in 2006. I didn’t ‘win’ or finish that year, in fact I quit pretty early in the game with the perfectionist in me feeling that the story I was writing was too cliche’ and not worth the effort. I obviously was missing the point of the whole NaNoWriMo premise.

I tried again in 2009 to write a novel in November for NaNoWriMo and was successful, not only completing my first novel, but in learning a lot about the craft of writing, and about myself, in the process. I think in 2010 I can be even more successful, and instead of using NaNoWriMo as just a learning experience, this year I can use the time and environment to write a novel destined for actual print.

As a full-time RVer, I don’t tend to stay in one place too long, but last year I had an advantage in that I had a whole month in one location and nothing else pressing except working on my novel. This was mostly at my husband’s insistence and he was a great cheerleader for me and made sure that nothing could be used as an excuse for not ‘winning’ the NaNoWriMo challenge. We spent the entire month of November (and part of October and December as well) last year at the Nellis AFB FamCamp in Las Vegas, NV and I had no excuses for not writing. It was great! (Thanks, Chuck 🙂 )

This year, I’m starting off a little behind. We’ll be on the road for the first few days of November before settling into a semi-permanent location in Florida for the winter. Once there, I’ll be able to stay in one place for the month and focus mostly on writing, but until then, I’ll have to find time to complete my daily word count (1,667 words a day to get to 50,000 by November 30th) ‘on the go’.

I can’t really complain about finding time to write, as so many people have kids, jobs, and other committments that make writing and writing for NaNoWriMo a real challenge for them. I’m one of the lucky ones who really doesn’t have any (legitimate) excuses. However, I am a procrastinator and a perfectionist, so I do manage to find excuses and must work extra hard to force myself to JUST WRITE! With last year’s win and experience under my belt though, I have confidence that this year I will complete my goal.

I plan to blog and vlog (video log) about the experience again. It’s a great way to chronicle the ups and downs of the process. This year I hope to do a bit more of the vlogging. We’ll see how that goes.