Monday, October 31, 2011

NaNo or No?

It's that time of year again!  Gearing up for Halloween, my youngest's birthday, Thanksgiving and...NaNoWriMo!

For my non-writerly friends: NaNo is National Novel Writing Month, in which in a frenzy of frenetic writing, you attempt to compose 50,000 words in 30 days.  (See?  I'm already warming up, using wordy phrases rather than simple explanations like, "you write fast.")

One of the highlights of the SCWW conference was finding an agent who likes the idea of my book.  I pitched him the basic story, he asked several follow up questions and said he would be interested in reading  the first 30 pages -- after the book is closer to 90,000 words and "good."  Which means I still have at least 10,000 to 15,000 "good" words to write.

I did not meet my 50K goal for NaNo last year but did begin a new novel that I love.  Unfortunately, that one is still languishing in my hard drive at 30,000 words.

Can I write a novel in 30 days?  No.
Can I write 50,000 words in 30 days?  Yes.

Should I sign up for NaNo?  Probably not.  I just have a hard time resisting, even if it is just for that blue status bar and the pure joy I feel watching it creep to the right.

3 comments:

Jen said...

Close your eyes and jump with me! We can do this!

LoryKC said...

Jen,
You had me at "close your eyes!" ;)
(SO sleepy) but I'm in!!

Jocelyn said...

Can the writing you do for the agent count for NaNo? If so, I say go for it! If it doesn't, and you have to write something new, I say skip NaNo this year and work on what you've got. Good luck!