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I’ve won it twice before. November 2009, and 2011.
National Novel Writing Month takes place every November, and if you’ve got the urge to participate, all it takes is penning 50,000 words in one month to win. I had mentioned this to Tori a while ago, and a few weeks ago, she texted me with an idea.
“Let’s do it!” she said. I was instantly on board.
We are calling it #TKNoWriMo, and the two of us are going to accomplish the feat at the same time. We have registered with camp Nanowrimo, and will each be writing 50,000 word novels from the first to the 31st of July. That’s just over 1600 words a day. Entirely possible. Except for one fact that I know from doing it myself in the past. One thing that works against you. If you skip just one day, to get back on track, the next day’s count doubles to 3200 words. Miss two days, and those words really start to add up. The math works against you. So the key to writing a first draft in a month, is in turning off the self-editor. There is no time to go back and fix anything, no time to make that last paragraph better. You have to just forge onwards. It may sound like a bad idea, but it solves one of the main reasons why novels don’t get written: lack of inertia.
Editing can happen later. For us, July is all about getting the words down. We’ve already got a schedule planned, and yesterday we stocked up on the important staples like diet Dr. Pepper and Hawkins Cheezies. We are ready to hunker down and be creative. She’s got her novel planned, and so do I. We are ready. And the best part is that we will be doing it together.
A Load of Codswallop 