Next month, along with thousands of other writers, I will be
attempting to write a complete novel for National Novel Writing Month
(NaNoWriMo). In order for me to accomplish this goal, I will need to double my
daily writing output from 1,000 to 2,000 words. While this is a challenge, it’s
not impossible; I do hope my friends and family will forgive my absence over
the coming weeks, though. I hope to pop my head up for a few days around
Thanksgiving.
This morning I was thinking about all the people I’ve known
over the years who told me they had a novel in them. If you are one of those
people, now is the time to prove to yourself and everyone around you that you
do: sign up for the NaNoWriMo challenge.
Put your effort where your mouth is. Don’t think about the 50K word goal – just
write every day for a month and see where you are at the end. NaNoWriMo offers
a multitude of peer groups to join; if you need even more support, I highly
recommend joining the Book
Junkies on Facebook.
From my personal experience, I can honestly say that writing
one book has the potential to open your creative floodgates. It took me six
months to write The Thief of Todays and Tomorrows.
Before I was done with it, though, I had ideas for several more novels. My
NaNoWriMo novel will be my eighth book and I’m sitting on at least six more
plots.
Stop telling me you have a novel in you – write it down and
share it with the world.
