Friday 17 September 2010

I have taken the plunge!

Yes, I have signed up for NaNoWriMo for 2010. OK, I am a little bit early, but who cares I am showing commitment. For anyone who has is not book obsessed and dreams of holding a book with their name on ( no, I don't mean a personalised diary) and has never heard of NaNoWrMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it happens every year throughout the month of November. The aim is to write a novel of 50,000 words between the 1st November and the 30th November; that works out to 1,667 words a day.


Now many of you know that I had planned to write a book last year and the year before and to be fair I have produced two nearly finished first drafts. Unfortunately that just isn't good enough and I need to get off my behind and actually produce a finished manuscript that I can send off to be published. Hubby believes I can do it, and I am fed up of letting him down. I believe I can do it, I am just too damn good at procrastinating.

So in order to make up for the last two years of procrastination, I intend to produce two first drafts. Not at the same time, because that just wouldn't work for me. What I want to do is have a trial run of NaNoWriMo during October to see how I get on. Anyone care to join me in this mad adventure?

I don't want to waste time anymore and I plan to spend the rest of September finishing the first two unfinished drafts I have and plan the next two. I am setting myself some serious deadlines, but I feel that if I don't I may as well give up my dream and go back to teaching. I want this year to be make or break with my dream of novel writing.

I know quite a few of my fellow bloggers have attempted this before, so any helpful tips would be much appreciated. I am also looking for a word count widget to add to my blog, anyone know where I can get one?


I am really excited and really scared, but I am hoping many of you will come along for the ride and support me when the going gets tough.

Here's to a productive Autumn.

22 comments:

  1. I am planning on joining too :D
    Of course how on earth I am gonna write a novel in English beats me...should make it a YA one

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck: go you! :) I signed up a couple of years ago and realised I actually have no interest in every writing fiction. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good for you. I am a firm, firm believer in deadlines. It's the only way. I also believe in prioritising. If you really want to do it, you have to make it a priority for that fixed period of time, and accept that other things are going to slide. Which means your bathroom may be dirty, the laundry gets ignored, and the rest of the family have to take care of themselves for a bit - it's only a month, right? Because I know I'm terrible at deciding that it wasn't my fault things didn't get done, because of all the other stuff I HAD to do. Yet, we can move that stuff down the list if we really want to.

    Example: we all know how important it is to be up to date with the ironing and have a nice clean kitchen before any school reports can be written!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh how exciting. I wont join you because I know I cannot write. I'm a reader not a writer :P But I am here cheerleading you on the sidelines in all my wobbly glory. Now there's a mental image to get you scribbling! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good for you! I would love to do this --- some year, but this is simply not the year. I will gladly cheer you on and hope that you provide us with updates on your progress!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Blodeuedd - fabulous. We can cheer each other on. I can always help with you the English side. I am going YA too.

    Eva & Clover - thank you. I am very excited.

    Anne - thank you. I do have to get my head around not doing housework. I remember the days of reports.

    Carmen and Molly - thank you guys. I will need as much support as possible, so I look forward to having you as cheerleaders.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How exciting. Good luck and do keep us posted as to your progress.

    ReplyDelete
  8. When you hear a big "Go, Vivienne, you can do it" from FL, that will be me. I'm cheering you on, kiddo!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good luck! I wish I could write but I'll sit on the sidelines and cheer. You can do it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. YAY!!!!! I'm so excited to hear you've signed up. I'm still dithering about NaNo this year because I seriously have not written anything since April. Maybe I'll join you for your trial run in October! :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kathy and Tracy - thank you ladies for your support.

    Kaye - Yay. That is what I like to hear.Thank you.

    Amanda - are you sure you can't write? Your blog always keeps me entertained.

    Amanda - I expect to see you leading the way. We can do this. October seemed like a good way of getting into the right frame of mind.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's awesome! Good luck with your writing!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good for you, Vivienne! I hope you will share your progress with the blogging world from time to time.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh good for you Vivienne :D :D :D I've done NaNo twice, completed it once, and I'm in no rush to do it again :p Not that it wasn't a blast, but I'm just traumatized by the whole thing :p But I did write a novel! And it feels good to say that. Still haven't gone back to do any editing though :(

    My best advice is to give yourself as much creature comforts as you can during that month..get ahead if you can early because you don't want to be scrambling towards the end...you'll be so frustrated! And Chris Baty wrote an excellent book called No Plot? No Problem! That has some excellent tips for the whole process!! You may want to check that out too :) It helped me. Mostly, just try to enjoy it as much as you can! And write us updates here so we can cheer you on :D

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alyce - thank you

    Suko - I will be blabbing away on here, especially when I need lots of loving support from you guys.

    Ladytink - thank you.

    Chris - thank you so much for your support. It would be lovely to see you joining in this year, but I can understand if you feel wiped out by it. I have read the book No Plot, No Problem and you were right, it was amazing. I am trying to be really organised and get the plot up and organised before the months starts so that I know where I am going.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good on you Viv, I'll pop in to cheer you on in October :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow--go Vivienne!! I definitely don't have the courage to do this (I'm totally plot-less in my brain), but I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. All the best, Viv! I'm thinking of joining also but with all the things that I'm doing now, I'm not sure if it's wise for me to take the plunge. I'll mull over it over the next few days. Thanks for the early post and reminder!

    ReplyDelete

Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.