It has begun…

Or conversely… when Suzan lost her mind and committed to writing challenges…

It’s NaNoWriMo time!

Oh, NaNoWriMo. That beautiful month when we choose to subject ourselves to write thousands of words in a  month, all the while dealing with the upcoming holiday season, for the US peeps Thanksgiving, and hundreds of other little distractions.

Thousands of writers all around the world join the charge of NaNoWriMo, sitting down and neglecting laundry for the next thirty days to write a novel. Of course, you could be like me and neglect laundry every month to write a novel.

I finished my very first novel through NaNoWriMo. It was a fantasy, it was a romance, and it was tons of fun. I’ve revisited that novel hundreds of times since, wanting to improve it so I could publish it. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it, but it’s fun to work on something that I have absolutely no pressure for.

So it’s Day One of NaNoWriMo. The day outside is sunny. Kid1 is at a band competition, which makes the house quiet. It’s a perfect opportunity to sit down and write. I’m starting to write a new series that I’m tentatively calling the Once upon a Hero series. It’s a contemporary NA series, but it probably won’t have as much suspense elements as the Lucky Thirteen series has. I have about 3000 words on it today so far. The goal is to do a whole lot more to front load for the rest of the month, because the last half of the month is going to be so busy.

And because I’m trying to build new habits this month, I also decided to do NaBloPoMo, which is short for National Blog Posting Month, a blogging challenge based upon NaNoWriMo’s concept. So, I’m committing to posting every day on the blog for the next 30 days. Yeah, the word “no” and I have never met.

What’s NaBloPoMo?

From BlogHer’s site on NaBloPoMo: “Think of it as one big blogging party meant to give you enough energy, ideas and inspiration to supercharge your blogging mojo and carry you through the next 12 months. We do our part to keep the energy going by celebrating the big crowd by featuring great posts, sharing prompts, cheering you on, and handing out prizes. 

NaBloPoMo is also a fantastic time to catapult your blog toward greater visibility and online opportunities. You’ll likely build readers, both through your frequent posts and through people exploring the NabBloPoMo blogroll.”

So, are you doing either of these challenges this year? It’s my first year doing NaBloPoMo, but I’ve done NaNo faithfully for years. I’m excited about this month, y’all. It’s going to be a fun ride.