NaNoWriMo!!!

It’s just a few weeks to go until NaNoWriMo! For those who haven’t come across NaNo before, it’s National Novel Writer’s Month (in November) where writers go all out and pump out a 50k novel before the 1st of December. I did it last year and found it really helped focus my writing. Not only does it give you the excuse to write like a maniac, you force all distractions out of your brain (it is a bit like a race) and just go for it. A big problem I had in the past with my writing was forgetting the sub-threads – no such problems with NaNo as everything is very fresh in your mind. December is for editing and polishing – you’re also not allowed to be distracted with grammar and ‘rules’ until then. November is all about the storyline.

This year I’m going to use NaNoWriMo to finish drafting Downtrodden. I started that book when I was waiting for Faeries to come back from Cornerstones (fabulous literary consultants in London who should be knighted). It was just going to be a small writing exercise and turned into a traditional fantasy novel about a girl who wants to escape the fate of prostitute at her family’s inn. I had outlined it and written three and a half very rough chapters (my YA crit group is suffering through that part of it now). I’m very eager to get it out on paper (or screen) after having it sit in my bottom drawer for the past two years.

No pirates for me for at least a month! And then I can put Downtrodden back in it’s safety drawer (we really don’t want these characters getting out of hand) and go back to polishing Blood Tide. So if anybody sees me swaggering with an eye patch and stuffed parrot on my shoulder during the month of November has the right to eat whatever chocolate I’ve packed for my lunch. It’s all monks, knights, unicorns, and escaped wenches. No elves though. Or orks. Or dragons. It might be trad fantasy, but it’s not that sort.