I’m very target-driven, as long I choose my own targets rather than having them imposed upon me, so NaNo and I are a perfect fit. I do it every year, clearing my desk and going for it. My family might starve. The dust might gathers. I neglect my other obligations. If I’m feeling inspired I can do 10,000 words in a day. The words are rubbish but that’s irrelevant. It’s all about having something to edit.
This will be the sixth year I’ve taken it on, but I’m a little more nervous about it than usual. For the first time I haven’t been able to cancel everything in preparation for it. I’m away for the first four days of the month, so unless I can squeeze in a few hundred words or so here and there I’ll be chasing the game from the beginning. And then there’s the small matter of edits to my first detective novel, which I’m expecting them at some point in November, but I don’t know when or how long they’ll take.
It’s a pity I can’t jump the gun and start now. (I could, of course but that would be cheating, and I would know, even if no-one else did.)
In the meantime, I’m sitting ready. I’ve looked at the list of things I’m committed to doing in November — blog posts, books to read and review, articles — and I’ve got three days left to get as far ahead with them as I can.
Most importantly, I have my chapter-by-chapter plan, which I’m trusting will see me through. It isn’t without its attendant problems, of course. I usually depart from it somewhere between the halfway and two-thirds marks, and end up somewhere completely different to the place I’d intended. (Is that mega-twist I have planned the end a little too much to be credible? What happens if I get there and realise it could never happen?)
So, as always, I’m excited and awed in equal measure. I’ve always “won” at NaNo before but that doesn’t make it any less of a challenge and it doesn’t mean that completing those 50,000 words is a given. So I won’t beat myself up about it if I fail. Roll on 1 November…
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