National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month

11/13/2011 11:13:00 PM

The NaNoWriMo is an annual writing contest. The goal is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty days. The contest takes place in November each year and there are prizes for the winners. The best novel gets a publishing contract. Meeting that goal requires writing an average of 1,667 words every day. By way of comparison, my collection of short stories "Raised by the Fox" was 41,340 words, which was written over the course of several years, not days.

I am not participating in the contest, although I thought about it. I am obviously a little late getting around to it, and there are contest requirements (such as posting each day's work to the site) that I didn't really care to meet. I was late getting started because I was in the middle of getting my short story collection published, and that was more important.

However, I do like the idea, and I think that attempting to meet the spirit of the competition instead of the detailed contest requirements will still help me to keep going.

The novel is underway. The story I mentioned in an earlier blog entry called "The Incursion" is intended to fit into the novel at some point. I am tracking my daily output of words, but I admit that I am behind and hoping to catch up a little before admitting how far I've gotten (or not gotten). Feel free to offer encouragement and bug me about my progress. I may even ask for help when things get sticky.

For those who may have had a chance to take a look at "Raised by the Fox" I would appreciate any feedback you might have. Pats on the back are nice but I'd most appreciate constructive criticism. Where did a story go wrong? Was something not adequately explained? Did characters not seem real enough?  Blast away here in the blog!

Finally, one of the things that gets a book noticed is book ratings and reviews on the Smashwords site. Unfortunately, only those who buy the book can rate it. This is not a ploy (at least, it's not MY ploy) to get more sales. But if you do happen to buy the book, I also encourage you to enter a rating and even make a comment or two.

Now I should get back to building up my word count - uh, I mean writing.