Wednesday, October 31, 2007

NOVEMBER WRITING CHALLENGE

Novemeber, as you may or may not know, is National Novel Writing Month. It's a big deal in writerly circles, or at least it's been heard of. The object of NaNoWriMo is simple--to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. That breaks down to 1657 words per day.

I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo. For several reasons, none of which matter here. But I am taking the point of the challenge to heart. And what, you ask, is the point of the challenge?

To write.

I've been working on the same novel for more than a year. The short story that is sprang from was written two years ago. I have beautifully written and rewritten the first 100 pages dozens of times. But I've never gotten further.

And I have to get further. Because I have a whole trilogy I want to tell, and I'm ready to outline the next two books, and I can't write them until I write the first.

So here comes November.

My rules:

1. I will write 1500 words a day. (That will give me 45,000 words at the end of the month, enough to either finish or come very close to finishing the novel.)

2. I will only write new words and new scenes. I am not allowed to touch the first 100 pages. No matter how much still needs to be fixed or added or deleted. Those 100 pages will just have to wait until November is over.

3. I don't think there is a 3 . . . Wait a minute, I've got it. I will post here every day my word count from the day before and a simple outline for that day's writing.

How about it? Want to help keep me on track and see if I can finally finish off this book?

9 comments:

Becca Fitzpatrick said...

I'm officially signing on as Cheerleader Number One. You can do it! Give me an S! Give me a T! Give me an O - R - Y!!!

Anonymous said...

May I suggest a rule.
Your not allowed to beat yourself up if you mess up one day. But you have to make the word count up by the end of the month.
Patty

Anonymous said...

Did you notice how many "up"s I got in that post. There's a way to get your word count up;)

Anonymous said...

You can do it Laura - I'm excited for you. Break off those shackles and get out of that cage.

LAURA said...

I think I can also up the word count with multiple uses of "that" and "really" and "very". Actually, any adverb or adjective will do :)

Thanks all! I love you.

And Patty--I promise not beat myself up. Pinkie swear.

Sherise said...

I am very very very excited for you! I really really really really know that you can do it!
(See, look at that, 19 words without even breaking a sweat. Imagine how easy it will be for you, who can actually, you know, WRITE.)

LAURA said...

Love you, Sherise :)

You made me laugh.

Judy said...

You go girl....ok my challenge for November is to finish at least 2 stitcheries a day before the 17th (I am starting to sell my work). I missed a day already but hey sunday is upon us and maybe I can catch up we did get an extra hour today! Keep up the great work. Can't wait to hear more about it.

Anonymous said...

What's your count now?

Patty