If Not For NaNoWriMo, Where Would We Be?

Short a lot of stories, that's where, and in a much less crazy (and awesome) world.

 

If you can't guess from the banner above, I'm doing NaNoWriMo. For me, there's never really been a question of whether or not I'll participate; I enjoy it too much to skip a year. (Besides, I depend on NaNo events for at least half my yearly writing.) I really don't have a plot yet, but . . . more on that later.

Quick explanation for any newcomers who are wondering "What the pumpernickel is NaNoWriMo?": NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. There's also a Young Writers' Program, which is for kids and teens under eighteen and allows you to set a goal less than 50K. It's awesome (and crazy, but mostly awesome). If you're a writer, I recommend trying it at least once. It's great for learning to discipline yourself and meet daily writing goals.

Anyway, as I said earlier, I don't really have a plot for this year's novel. Not that I usually have more than a very rough outline in my head, but I usually have settled on one story I'm going to write. This year . . . nope. I'm hoping to change that in the next few days by writing down summaries and possibly rough outlines for some of my ideas so I can figure out which one would be the best choice.

I do know that I'm taking a break from my Berstru Tales series, which I worked on during the last three years' NaNoWriMos (I'm still working on Book 4 . . . I'm nearly done, though!) and from my fairy tale remake series (I've been working on Book 2 on and off for about a  year and a half). I love both series, but I really want to take a month off and work on one of the other novels I have floating in my head. I mean, if I don't finish Berstru Tales 4 in the next few days, I might do some work on it during NaNoWriMo (since I only have four or five scenes left), but that's all.

What'll happen to Dreams and Dragons during NaNoWriMo? Well, Top Ten Tuesdays and Random Fridays may or may not go on hiatus; it depends how school and writing go and how much I like the topics for those posts. Even if I don't do my usual posts, though, I'll be posting semi-daily NaNoWriMo progress updates, like I did last year. I also have ideas for other weekly posts, along the lines of word wars and/or writing challenges, that I may try, though I'm not sure. We'll see.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? If so, do you have a plot yet? Also, if I host some kind of word war or writing challenge on my blog, would you be interested in joining in? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading, and happy noveling!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)