NaNoWriMo: Surprise! I'm Writing A Novel

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Here's some random but also awesome news: I've decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month and write my first novel! Completely left field I know, but I've always wanted to write a novel, and what better time to start than now?

I've always been a huge reader. When I was in primary school, my teacher called my parents in because she kept catching me reading story books under that desk during class. What can I say? Math was boring. Roald Dahl was not. Books and the stories within them have always been a huge part of my life and to this day, I always have a book on hand in my handbag for unexpected downtime. I honestly think I've read upwards of two thousand books in my lifetime, and that's not counting the ones I keep going back to because I love them.

Writing a book of my own has always been something I wanted to do, mostly just to be able to say that I did it, but I don't have the discipline to start and finish a project like that on my own unfortunately. Especially since I've never had plans to become a professional writer. NaNoWriMo is a chance to set clear goals for my writing, and hold myself accountable to other people.

It's simple. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words of your novel between November 1st, and November 30th. That's it. If you finish on time, you "win", although the only prize is the the satisfaction of having gotten it all done. And, you know, the novel you'll have on your hands.

I'm starting late because I wasn't sure it was something I wanted to undertake, but now that I've decided I'm on board, it's been really fun. I only signed up yesterday, but I'm already 1,000 words in, and I've got a solid outline going. Still have to flesh out my plot and characters, but I'm getting there. I won't divulge too much of the details just yet (in case I chicken out and quit!) but I will say that it's about figuring out how to be a functioning adult when there's no rulebook telling you how. It's set in Trinidad, where I live, and it's likely to be semi-autobiographical, mostly by accident because I'm not creative enough to think of something outlandish. I'll try to keep that to a minimum though! The working title is "Adulting", but that may or may not change.

I've added a little widget to the footer on my blog so that you can see how much progress I'm making as the month goes on. I'm thinking that I'll do weekly updates here on the blog so I can document how things are going, and maybe even divulge a few plot details. Something more to keep me accountable. I'm a week late, so I have a lot of catching up to do, but the perk of being currently unemployed is that I'll have lots of time to write. Who knows? Maybe the book will be a best-seller! Doubtful, but a girl can dream...

Anyway, are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo? Have you participated before? What was your experience like and did you find the challenge hard? If you're participating now, let me know in the comments what your novel will be about. I'd love to hear some of the great stories you're coming up with. In any case, wish me luck this month. I'm gonna need it!


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