National Novel Writing Month 2010 -- Do you dare?

Congrats to Renee G. who won a copy of Laura Griffin’s romantic suspsense novel UNSPEAKABLE and don’t forget there’s still time to enter our 3-3-3 contest (and who wouldn’t like to win an Amazon gift card?).

Next Monday marks the official start of National Novel Writing Month . Or as they call it, “30 Days of Literary Abandon”.

If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo let me explain the basics. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel between November first and thirtieth. (Obviously 50k words does not a novel make…but it’s a damn good start.)

If you’re into crunching numbers, that means writing 1667 words per day. (actually it’s more like 1666.67 but decimal points always screw me up) That’s a lot of words. But it’s doable. And that’s the appeal of NaNoWriMo – it’s a challenge. Make no mistake, we’re talking quantity, not quality here. Be prepared to tell your internal editor and censor to take a month-long vacation together. This 50,000 word draft won’t be pretty, but it’ll be yours.

I first became aware of NaNoWriMo years ago when I met author Lani Diane Rich, the first previously unpublished writer who published a NaNo manuscript. She was signing that book, Time Off For Good Behavior (a fun read, btw) at a conference I was attending and she gushed, absolutely gushed about this writing challenge with a weird name.

Every year since, I’ve considered signing up, but I never have. Earlier this year I eyed my November calendar and thought, “Maybe this is the year.” Then Carina Press accepted my romantic suspense novel for publication next summer. Now I find myself waiting for my revision letter (and with it, an accompanying deadline). Between the revisions and other obligations, there’s no way I can hit that 50,000 word mark. Now is not the time to sign up for NaNoWriMo.

Or is it?

Last year over 165,000 writers participated (over 30,000 of those ended up as official finishers, meaning they wrote their 50k in the allotted time). That means that 165,000 made the attempt. They tried. They didn’t talk themselves out of taking the challenge, they embraced it.

That’s what I’ve decided to do this year. I’m going to run full tilt at the challenge knowing full well there’s a good chance I won’t “win”. Hell, chances are, I'll fail spectacularly (and in public) but at least I'll have given it a shot.

I’ll be updating you on how I’m doing with my word count in the Monday Status Updates here on Killer Chicks and I hope you’ll share yours. I’ll also be providing hints, prompts, rants, doses of inspiration, and glimpses of my insanity, over at JB Lynn’s Confessions of a Crime Writer on a daily basis, and of course I’ll be at NaNoWriMo using the name JB_Lynn (don’t forget the underscore).

What about you? Are you up to the challenge of National Novel Writing Month? Have you tackled it before? Do you want to join me this year?