NaNoWriMo 2009

It’s still about a month away, but November is coming. It’s the time of year when we will start to worry about our Christmas shopping and contemplate how to avoid annoying family members at the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. But, a few thousand people (like, about 100,000), will be burning the midnight oil doing something else. The few, the inspired, and the possibly crazy will be registering for NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month.

In a mere 30 days we will attempt to achieve the seemingly impossible, we will write a book. It may not be the next great American novel, but it will be. It will exist. We will have conquered the inner Editor/Judge/Bitch and the terrifying blank screen.

I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo for the last three years, but I’ve never risen to the challenge. This year will be mine! I’ve started preparing, which will hopefully work better than the “winging it” I’ve done in the past.

First, I’m joining a writing group with fellow NaNoWriMo authors. We haven’t hammered out the details, but we’re gonna meet regularly to review each other’s work, give advice and encouragement…and more importantly, accountability.

Second, I’m looking for help. So far, I found that many people who have succeed at this in the past have a NaNoWriMo Survival Kit. Many of their suggestions include their laptop, candy for rewards, cozy socks and some sort of writing guide. Hmmm, what would be in my survival kit?

Of course, my laptop and my journal. Maybe some tea. Oh, and Nutella! And, many reminders from Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Natalie Goldberg and others who tell us that this writing thing I’m choosing to do is not easy.

My third resource that will hopefully help me achieve this goal of writing 50,000 words in a month, is a new treasure to me called The Snowflake Method. It’s a 10 step guide to writing a novel. Seriously, they can break anything down into a 10- or 12-step guide these days.

Do you have any tips for surviving and thriving during NaNoWriMo?

Another tip I recently received about writing a novel came from some very wise authors at the most recent James River Writers’ event. The novelists each said that their novels start with a question they can’t answer, or a paradox they see in life. Today I spent my morning coming up with the question for my novel. I think they are right! I’m energized and excited for my story. Answering this question has become deeply important to me, and I know it will constantly be in my mind over the next few weeks. Ah, I love it!