Just signed up for NaNoWriMo

It’s that time of year again. Time to sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) if you haven’t already done so. What is NaNoWriMo? Well, the purpose of NaNoWriMo is to kick yourself in the behind and write! To be precise, when you sign up for NaNoWriMo, you officially commit yourself to writing 50,000 words of your novel in the month of November.

So, I’m sitting here reading your mind, and I can hear you thinking, “Damn, 50,000 words… that’s a LOT!” and “What happens if I don’t make it to 50,000?” “Is this going to cost me some money?”

Don’t worry. There is no gun held to your credit card, no fees, no charge if you don’t make it. No, NaNoWriMo is there to support you. If you’re like me, you do your best work and accomplish the greatest quantity of work when you have a deadline. And, unless you already have a publisher lined up and have received some type of advance (which I’m sure most of you have not,) then you don’t ever have a deadline to work against when writing your novel. AND, if you’re like me, this may have created some problems for you in the past.

With no deadlines, we have no incentive to get to work. Maybe you are like me, and you focus most of your writing on the piddly little ‘pay the bills’ deadlines you do have, none of which will get you any closer to your BIG GOAL, which is to write that great American novel. So join me, sign up!

Don’t be scared, this will be my first year too. I know a few people who have participated in NaNoWriMo in the past and thought it was a great experience. So, let’s do this.

Are you a part of NaNoWriMo? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experiences in the comments below, and feel free to pep us up! I’m also interested in finding a couple of guest bloggers who are willing to share their experiences in a future post (you’ll get links back to your own website in exchange, yay!) If interested, e-mail me.

Happy writing,

Mandy Webster

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