So as of Saturday it’s official. I signed my first contract, made my first sale in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genre, and will be receiving my meager allowance shortly! What perfect timing too! Tomorrow I will embark on the NaNoWriMo challenge once again. Winning the Halloween contest has inspired me to take this challenge head on. I’m totally pumped and ready to go.
I’ve mentioned NaNoWriMo a couple of times before. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. For those writer’s out there with fulltime jobs, and some semblance of a life it can be done. For those of you who have never faced the perils of writing a novel, 50,000 words is a lot!!! I would say your average novel is anywhere from 80,000 words to 130,000 words. If you can picture a young adult novel that is about the size we are shooting for.
Of course, I don’t write young adult novels…and I don’t intend on starting now. So I can’t decide whether or not I am going to just aim for 50,000 and have an incomplete novel, or aim higher and shoot to finish a draft. My goal was to have a draft completed by the end of the year. I have one that is about 2/3 finished…but I have been stuck for a really long time. If I start a novel in November and don’t get it finished I’m afraid I won’t come back to it. If I can go insane and get an 80,000 word draft done then at least I will have completed my goal of getting something finished. This will be cause for a big celebration! (Speaking of end of the year celebrations, I should totally have a New Years Eve party…hmm…)
Where was I. Oh, so the funny thing about the Halloween Contest. I actually critiqued the short story that won! How funny is that?
With the NaNoWriMo, there is a forum/message board where you post your daily results…i.e. daily word count, total word count, most interesting line, worst line etc! I can’t decide if I want to post the info directly to the site and let my fellow fans read from there…or just use the blog to update my results. Or I could copy and paste…any suggestions from the peanut gallery? I’ll have to get on the site tonight and see what kind of access non-registered visitors get.
And the countdown is on baby!
