NaNoWriMo

Tried it once. Only got about 30k words.

This inspired me to write shorter bits. In the last year, I joined the Tokyo Writers Workshop, a great bunch of people who have been kind enough (and appropriately not so kind when necessary) to critique my short stories. I’ve written and work-shopped a half dozen since January, and have another bunch in the back burner. In the non-face-to-face realm, I have a bunch of great friends from back in the day who have done the same. Nothing published yet, but that’s not the point.

Writing short stories has helped me to hone some skills and improve short term goal setting. 5k words is doable. I’ve done that in 2 days, sans edit. So a 50k draft in 30 days is certainly doable. No editing, just writing.

I have a plot, a character, and plenty of notes. Now I just need to sustain output. 30 dyas means 1,666 words a day. Last night- Halloween no less- I sat down at the table with my daughters while they were doing their homework. I cranked out about 2k words. Not bad. Not on this novel, but that’s ok. Proof of concept. This is doable.

And now it is public.

Which opens me up to public shaming in case I don’t deliver. And I know that my friends will be all to happy to shame me. In the same way that they are willing to support me.

I will be posting progress throughout the month. This might get repetitive… that’s the plan, anyway 😉