NaNoWriMo 2016 Plan: Break the Rules

It’s pretty old news that I do National Novel Writing Month every year. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to set aside chunks of time in November since I began taking on the challenge in 2013 and have consistently won. Which means I’ve written 50,000+ words from the 1st to the 30th.

I’m a bit nervous for this go-around. The past two years I’ve worked on books one and two in the series I’m currently mired in. While I plan for there to be a book three sometime in the not-so-distant future, I’m not ready to write it. Mainly because once I complete book two, which should honestly already be done since I have it mapped out and ready to go…, I need to return to book one and do a major overhaul.

And that is likely the reason I have been avoiding finishing my manuscript.

I don’t want to edit for NaNo, I’ll never ever get the words I need to accumulate while editing. And I don’t want to start book three. Cue my stomach tying into knots since I know what I don’t want to do, and until recently I didn’t have a clue as to what I did want to do.

Thankfully, I had an epiphany the other day. I’ve had a middle grade/YA story playing in my mind for a while now. The ideas are half-formed, the setting is half-formed, and the characters are wispy shadows. I don’t know what to expect from any of it, but I really want to find out what it has to offer.

I know it’s a bad idea to start an entirely new project while I have two needing edits, but it’s the only thing I can think of. Plus I need a break from my series. So I’m breaking my project focus rule.

Here’s my plan: for NaNo I intend to pull up my big girl pants and finish book two’s manuscript for my RA series. Which means after NaNo, I have to pull up my scarier big girl pants and start the revision process with book one. However, I fully intend to distract myself with the writing of my middle grade book cuurently dubbed Doppelganger as a working title. I intend to have nothing but fun with it in an effort to bolster myself for editing and to flex my underused writing muscles.

I still have to print my calendar, do the necessary math, write blog posts well-ahead, and come out with a minimal outline for Doppelganger, but I’m excited. And relieved.

Are you tackling NaNoWriMo 2016 come November?

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