How to Write a Novel in a Month

Some of you might have seen the new little counter thing on my right sidebar. It is counting how many words Lahdeeda and I have written in November as we try to write an entire novel in a month.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's been around for 10 years. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it until this year. Anyway, there are thousands of people around the world trying to write 50,000 words in a month. And what's our secret?

The trick is that you don't worry about writing the next Pulitzer. You don't even worry about writing something publishable (yet). The trick to writing a novel in a month is that you just write. Every day, you just write. You write down the flat characters, the cliched descriptions, the non-exciting action and the stale dialogue. Once you stop worrying about how awful it is, something changes (at least for me it does) and the story and characters start to feel kind of real. And they start sounding better.

It's been really exciting to see a novel actually taking shape as I write. I've always thought I could do something like this but never took the steps to actually do it. Now I am and it's an eye-opening experience.

Keep an eye on my counter to see my progress. I am pretty behind already, but I'm just trying to make my daily goals instead of catching up. And even though I am behind where I want to be, I'm still 5,000 words closer to finishing a novel than I've ever been before! Wish me luck. :)