I signed up to do National Novel Writing Month a few years ago, but I … uh … I just didn’t do it. I wrote for a few days, then we went on vacation and I never picked it up again.
I don’t have any vacations planned for November (but I do have a birthday and a baby), so I won’t have any excuses (ha!) for not finishing.
Anyway, I’m going to give it a shot.
Here, for the uninitiated, is what I’m talking about (courtesy of the good folks at nanowrimo.org):
How NaNoWriMo Works (in Ten Easy Steps)
1) Sign up for the event starting October 1, 2006 by clicking the Sign up Now link at the top of the site.
2) After creating an account, log into it. Click “Edit Profile” in the top tab, and tell us about your writerly self. Then head to the “My NaNoWriMo” section and add a photo, choose some writing buddies, and pick a home region. This tells our computer which NaNoWriMo Regional Lounge to offer you in the forums, which local events calendar and photo links to show you on the Local Events page, and gets you CC’d on emails pertaining to any wild novelist gatherings going on in your area.
3) Begin your novel-planning procrastination by reading through all the great advice and funny stories in the forums. Post some stories and questions of your own. Get excited. Get nervous. Eat lots of chocolate and pamper yourself in preparation for the fiction-fueled escapade to come.
4) On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.
5) This is not as scary as it sounds.
6) Starting November 1 you can go to your My NaNoWriMo page to post excerpts of your work for others to read, and update your escalating word count.
7) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web icon. The adding of your name to the Honor Roll of Winners requires that you send in a version of your novel in text format (scrambled for security) to our site to be counted.
8) This is not as scary as it sounds either, and we’ll post step-by-step instructions on how to upload your novel to our team of superpowered computational robots (flown in from Germany every year) starting in mid-November.
9) Win or lose, you rock for even trying.
10) That’s it! If you have any questions, just check out our FAQs. And best of luck in November!
50,000 words? Easy as pie. A novella. No sweat.
Wish me luck.
Yikes.