It’s that time of year again – time to dust off those keyboards and start writing a novel! National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short because who’s got time for that mouthful?) is an annual contest where you challenge yourself to write a novel of at least 50,000 words length in just 30 days. Sounds daunting? It’s not anywhere near as bad as you might expect.
By writing just 1,667 words per day (which can take as little as 20 minutes for some people but which usually takes me 30 minutes to an hour) from 01 November, you will reach 50,000 words on the final day of the contest. It’s a fun exercise and it really gets the creative juices flowing. I highly recommend giving it a try because if you win, you have written a book and can be exceptionally proud of yourself; and if you don’t win, you’ve just started a book and you can finish it at your own pace. You should be proud either way – it’s literally a win-win situation.
This year, I’m writing two novels because I’m “NaNo Rebelling” (a community term for not following all the rules & going your own way) to complete two stories I started in previous years. That’s perfectly fine, by the way – the rules aren’t set in stone.
The first is ‘The Eagle’, a sci-fi space opera from my ‘Sol Invictus’ universe that takes place 80,000 years into the future where a newly-promoted Captain and her crew are launched into a life-or-death situation when they encounter a dangerous new species for the first time.
The second is ‘Forged in Blood’; which keen-eyed readers might notice has been mentioned in that progress bar on the right-hand side of my site for over a year now. It’s an urban fantasy where a resurrected vampire and a band of government agents from the ‘punishment patrol’ branch of military intelligence are pitted against a demon from another universe that wants to destroy the world and remake it in their own image.
At present, Forged In Blood is at the 75,926 word mark and I’ve been working on it in my (admittedly limited) spare time for several years. The Eagle is at the 14,991 word mark and there’s a long way to go with that one. I’m hoping to be able to complete both stories during the course of this year’s contest and I’ll keep you updated on my progress as the month goes on.
You can join in with NaNoWriMo at any time, at www.nanowrimo.org – I really do recommend you give it a try.
Good luck and happy writing!