Pardon? National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo because it’s quicker to say, takes place every year in November. I joined up last year (it’s free) and managed to write a book over fifty thousand words in length. That was the target, so I was, in the organisation’s terms, a winner. What did I actually win? Nothing really; it’s just a smugness award.
Some while later, I revisited the story and it has ended up at 61,330 words which is acceptable for a novel, though evidently fifty thousand counts. It still lives on my hard disk awaiting my further attention, but it is in essence a finished novel, so for me, last year’s efforts paid off.
This year I have signed up to the site, declared myself a participant and given my non-existent book a title. That’s the easy bit – it’s all uphill from now on! I promise not to inundate you with daily totals (tempting though that is) but I might mention passing the tens of thousands as they are landmarks. And if I make 50k again, you can be sure you’ll hear about it!
The working title? Beyond Recall. I wish I could remember what it’s about…