Who’s ready to NaNo?!?!

Yes! It’s almost that time again! Time to get my NaNo on!

Which means what, exactly?

In a nutshell, it means I’ll be writing a teeny bit more in November than I do the rest of the months of the year. Which is a good thing, in my opinion, because by pushing myself to write a little more, I can complete more books which means more books for you to read.

Win/Win!

(Also, I love completing books and NaNo always seems to get me to finish up those projects that have been lingering in the Land of Unfinished Manuscripts for a while. Wheeeeee!)

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for several years now and some of the lessons I learned from those first few have stuck with me.

• Bad writing days happen. Accept it and move along. Life doesn’t care that you’re trying to write, it keeps chugging along no matter what month it is.
• Large goals are intimidating. Breaking down that 50K monthly goal over 30 days makes that giant leap a lot more manageable.
• It’s a heck of a lot easier to write a book when you have an idea of what you want to write about in place before you start writing.
• Seriously. Even the vaguest of ideas helps.
• First drafts can be painful. Sometimes they’re hard to write. Sometimes they just suck. KEEP WRITING ANYWAY!
• Back up your work. (I can’t stress this one enough. Even if it’s only emailing yourself your writing for the day once you’ve finished…BACK UP YOUR WORK.) (Yes, there’s a story behind these crazy eyes. A painful story.) (Come to think of it, if you have any websites, you should back those up too. Just for the heck of it.)

Nuggets of wisdom, my friends. The most important one is the last one. NO JOKE.

I’ll be working on a new series for NaNo. Book 1 is written and books 2-4 are slated for GLORIOUS CREATION. Or, you know, just to be written. Once I get far enough into the writing I’m sure the blurbs will remain the same, I’ll give you a few hints.

In the meantime, expect random updates in November as I work my way through 50K words! *fist pump*

If you’re doing the NaNo thing, feel free to add me as a writing buddy – Kelly Apple. I love seeing what everyone can accomplish when they put their collective pens to paper. Or fingers to the keyboard. WHATEVER.