Nano? Oh, no!

The November page of my calendar has DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DOING NANO written in big black letters. But did I listen? No, of course not. But this year I am trying something different.

If you read Chris Baty's first book, the original concept was to sit down on November 1st and write until you hit 50,000 words. No plotting, no prep...just write. Clearly things have changed since then.Today's Nano participant approaches it very differently. There are numerous books and workshops on how to prepare for November. By October 31st, we are allowed to have outlines, lists of scenes, a synopsis and any number of planning tools.

I joined a local Nano group and have gotten many suggestions for how to survive the month. They even have a solution of sorts to my particular problem. You see, I do well until Thanksgiving when we have week long house guests from out of state. Some suggested "reverse nano" which is a fascinating concept. You start writing on day one and write 3346 words. Then as the month goes on, you write fewer and fewer words. I like the idea but I am still not sure I can write 3000+ words a day for a couple of weeks.

So, my goal is 50,000 words. I will use every suggestion from the group that I can. I do wish I had known earlier so more planning could be done before November 1st. But winner or not, one thing I do know is that I will have more words toward a new novel than I had when I started.

See you in December.