Here we go… another year, another novel!

November is right around the corner, and that means it’s time to write another novel. It’s Nanowrimo time!

Regardless of what news I get this week, I’m still going to give this my best shot. Today I went out and hooked up with 30+ writers in the Hamilton area who are participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month (also known as Nanowrimo). It was nice to see everyone again, and we talked about what kind of books we were thinking of writing this month and what not. We met some new writers that were wirting Nanowrimo for the first time here in town this year, and when you’re doing something like that it’s always good to have group to support yout to the finish line. While I haven’t written a single word for this November’s novel, I have a good idea in my head where and what I want to type… so I am going to hit the ground running on November 1st (at midnight) and get a pile of words done right from day one.

Rather that start slow and pick up the pace as I go along, I’m thinking of starting fast and divulge major details through a series of flashbacks… that way the pace of the book will be a lot faster. It was a good piece of advice I got regarding some other novel I’ve been working on and I’m going to apply it in my new works. I have character sketches made, a tiny bit of the plot mapped out in point form and a good idea of how I want the book to flow. That’s all one could really want going into the first week. So I have the plan, now I’ll have to see if that will be enough to get me on the right track to 50,000 words in 30 days.

One more cool feature I’m going to offer when I’m writing this book is a meter for when I post updates here on Opendiary and on other online venues to guage how well I am doing (or not) with my novel. This is what my updates are going to look like when I post entries about Nanowrimo here on OD:

Pretty cool, eh?

I think it’s pretty snazzy myself. The picture will change (depending on what my current mood is) and the bucket will fill with paper as the novel gets closer to it’s goal of reaching 50,000 words. This will be a good indication to let people know where I stand and what status I am in regarding my attempt to make it to the end of this writing marathon.

So that is the plan for the coming month. If you are participating in Nanowrimo this year and want to add me to your buddy list I use the same username there that I do here (Peter_24601) and leave your username here in a note and I’d be honored to add your name to my buddy list… the more the merrier! So that’s it from here for now, I hope everyone had a good weekend and I’ll be around to leave a few notes and maybe another entry if I have time. Until then, take care…

Peter