November is nearly over and so is NaNoWriMo. In case you\u2019ve never heard of that, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and is when you sign up to write 50,000 words in 30 days! This is technically the definition of a novel but of course, most modern novels are much larger, so most writers use November as a chance to get a good start on their next book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My rough draft is just that\u2014very rough! I can tell I\u2019m not writing up to my full potential for some reason, but I can\u2019t stop and try to correct things or I won\u2019t make that 50,000 word goal. So I\u2019m just plugging away at it, slapping down the bare bones of the story and planning to go back and fix everything in December. Or once I finish the whole novel, whichever appeals to me better come December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOf course, I also have other writing to do in November: a guest spot on the Western Fictioneers blog plus two of my own blogs that I try to update every week. And I post writing prompts on my Twitter and Patreon platforms, plus the articles and images I share on my Facebook page. That\u2019s a lot of extra words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My distraction is usually Alexa Answers. This is a website where you can find, if you have an Amazon account, questions people have asked their Alexa device that the device did not know the answer to. You can provide an answer\u2014serious attempts only, please, not smartarse replies!\u2014and earn badges and reputation points and even a chance at an Amazon gift card once a month. Plus, it\u2019s fun seeing your name on the leaderboard and trying to get as high as you can before the end of the month, when it resets. When I\u2019m not doing what I\u2019m supposed to be doing (aka writing on the novel), that\u2019s usually what I\u2019m up to. I need to taper off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the novel, I\u2019m roughly on Chapter 10, headed for 11, so I\u2019m doing fairly well considering. I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ll hit the 50,000 word goal by tomorrow night, barring some sort of crazy circumstance. Am I finished with the novel? Hell, no, not even close. But have I gotten more words down than I would have done otherwise? Yes, indeed, and that\u2019s why I sign up for NaNoWriMo every November. They also do a \u201cCamp NaNoWriMo\u201d in the Summer and Fall, and sometimes I sign up for those as well. We\u2019ll see how I feel come Summer, 2024.<\/p>\n