Let NaNo commence…

Blimey, has it really been that long? Over a month since my last blog post.

[image error]It's November again and that means NaNo. It has done since 2005, this will be my seventh year of participation and, hopefully, my seventh year of winning. Hmm, should I include the mid-NaNo Camp that I took part in last July? It was still 50,000 words but without the buzz and feel of proper November NaNo. I still did it, but it wasn't the same.

But it would make seven NaNo events and seven wins so far, although only six are recorded on the main NaNo profile and site. I don't know, it's not "proper" NaNo really, is it? When I started NaNo, back in 2005, I had a writing buddy and we got together in person pretty much every week. We drank tea, baked cakes, tried to make our respective children play nicely together and we laughed and threw ideas around. It was hard work to complete that first NaNo, but it was fun too.

For the following few years that stayed, and NaNo has become a regular part of my year. I've added extra little challenges along the way. One year I decided that ALL names in my NaNo novel had to come from a particularly interesting spam folder. I'd had a flurry of spam emails and some of the names in them were lots of fun. Another year my extra challenge was to create a whole book within the 50,000 words. The whole story had to be finished so the final words I typed to win could be "The End.", which is so clichéd that I didn't actually type that, but I could have done.

Last year was different. My writing buddy and I have drifted and we don't get to see each other like we used to. We chat online most evenings and the support and cajoling we both need is still there, but it's not the same. I wonder if this year will be the last in a continuous run of winning NaNos, and I don't feel as sad about that as I thought I might.

My life is changing, the way I write is changing, and I'm not convinced that NaNo fits into all that any more.

But, this year I will do it again. Just as soon as I finish this blog post. Also, I thought I might try NaNo in reverse….. How many of us just scrape in those 1,667 words each day and fall behind only to need a final mad, frantic sprint for the finish, vomiting forth masses of words to collapse, exhausted, across that November 30th finish line? It's a rush, isn't it?

But for the last few years I've set myself a 2k words a day goal to start off, so I can get ahead and slow down when it gets tough, take time with my kids and do shopping. So, if I'm going to work like that I may as well do it all backwards and use those early days of writing like a maniac to actually work to a plan.

Backwards NaNo – where you only have to write a single word on the final day! Genius.

Would you like me to blog a bit each day?

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