General Ramblings of a Disorganized Blogger

November writing madness … what on earth was I thinking?

by Jen Lucas

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So … It is the first day of November. I can’t believe how the year has flown. It seems like only yesterday that we were heralding in a new year and yet here we all are. Everything is turning autumnal and it is decidedly wetter and colder than it has been in a while. Happy days.

That means Christmas is just around the corner. Yippee. Ish.

It also means that today I start my attempt at writing. I have decided to take part in National Novel Writing Month or NaNo as it is more commonly known. A bit of a misnomer really as this is a wholly international affair but I suppose InNoWriMo doesn’t have the same ring to it.

It’s not the first time I’ve done it. I completed way back in 2015. A terrible bit of writing but that’s nothing new. I’ve decided to try again this year to make myself focus on the one thing I keep finding excuses not to do – actually write.

I’m not saying this is going to be easy. The idea is that during the month of November I will write 50k words, or roughly half of a first draft of a book. It sounds like a lot but if you break it down it’s only just under 1700 words a day. That’s still quite a lot if the muse doesn’t flow, but I am hopeful that with the right focus I can do it. My daily record is somewhere over 12.5k words so I know I can write when I want to.

Mostly utter drivel, but it’s still writing and you can’t edit an empty page …

I do have things working against me a little. For one thing, I start my new job on Monday so I will need to make sure I focus enough attention on that. I’m also off to a book launch on Tuesday so that’s another afternoon and evening I miss out on, but I know that will be worth it. It’s half way through day one and I’ve got just shy of 5k words down – just under 10% of my target – so with focus over the weekend I can get myself ahead.

What am I writing? Well … theoretically a crime novel, police based, that could (if I can even finish part one) be part of a series. We shall see. If nowt else I guess I can have a little fun with it and it will keep me out of mischief. I promise not to bore you all with word counts or how I am doing (although it might make a brief appearance in the weekly updates, assuming I have time to write them).

I have reading and blogging to do too, although I am nearly all read up to the end of November so that will help a little, but it’s definitely going to be a challenging month. If I’m not about as much, then this is why. Although to be fair I’ve got quite a few posts already scheduled for November so you might not even miss me. Sorry about that …

Wish me luck. I’m off to write something.

Maybe.

Ish …

Jen

21 thoughts on “November writing madness … what on earth was I thinking?”

      2. You have a target of 50k words throughout the month to ‘win’ at NaNo but ultimately you can set whatever daily or weekly target works for you. You’d need to do a little under 1700 a day to make the fifty but I just use it as a good motivator to write. I like challenging myself and beating that daily target does feel good. then again on the days I can’t write, I’m not worried as I can add more words when I can. If you can’t write at weekends for example, you could aim for 2300 words a day and still hit the 50k by the end of the month.

        You don’t lose anything but not completing 50k but it just gives you a reason to try and any words you write will be more than you have on a blank page.

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    1. Thank you and good luck to you too. I’ve banked a good few words early as I know they first couple of days of next week will be tough to write much so at least I’ve got them covered 😉

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