This year after a friend had recommended it; I decided to look at the website for NaNoWriMo and jumped in head first.  I had a story that I had dreamt up a year ago stuck on the pages of my journal and playing over and over again in my head so I decided that THAT will be the story I write in a month.  I wanted to have fun and seeing that they didn’t care that it wasn’t well written peeked my interest even more because I thought that my story would have to be publisher material in a month.

So I grabbed up my writing journal and flipped through the pages until I reached my story.  I reread my ideas and knew that this is the story that I wanted to write in a month’s time, just to see if I can do it, have fun doing it, and to truly see if I put my mind to one story with a time limit then I’ll be able to finish my stories in the future.  I have always had a hard time sticking to one story so I hope that this will help set me straight and stick with one story at a time until they are finished.  I wanted the challenge and am ready but what can you do to get ready if you wish to try your hand at writing a novel in a month?

A lot of other hubbers who are doing this as well as my other friends on face book have written out their characters as well as outline their plot, setting and where they want their story to go.  Since you cannot start writing until November 1^st, just continue to work on your outline and wait as patiently as you can.

I am not one to do outlines, having hated doing it back in school, so I do it in my own way, making notes in my writing notebook as well as my writing journal.  I make notes on my characters and what they may look like, my characters thankfully already having names, and notes on the setting or even on a scene that I would like to see in the story.  For this particular story, I had already dreamt up a scene that I will be placing in my story somewhere though I have to figure out where in the story it will fit just right.  I have an inkling but I have to see where my story goes before I can add that scene, maybe even make it two scenes depending on how it goes.

Don’t give up either, if you feel overwhelmed, just sit down, take a deep breath and let the words flow from your imagination to your fingertips and into your computer.  Have fun and don’t worry about grammar or other things like flow at the moment.  This challenge is just to see if you can finish a novel in a month, then you start editing and proofreading in December.  Just go on the website daily and update your word count so that they and you can keep track until November 30^th midnight, the last day and time when you can submit your story for the robotic counter to see if you have really reached your goal of 50,000 or more word count.  Don’t worry they won’t keep your story on file, it is your story!  Once they counter has counted and made sure that you do indeed have the right word count number, the website will automatically erase your story.

Jump in and try your hand at writing a story in a month.  Don’t be afraid and give it a try.  I hope more of you will join up next year and try your hand at this fun and interesting challenge! J

 http://www.nanowrimo.org/

In case any of you would like to look it up here is the link to the website that a few of us are signed up for. I hope more of you sign up next year and join us in the challenge and writing! Good luck to those who already have joined!