It’s that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month!

This is time of year when tens of thousands of people around the globe, who have clearly lost all touch with common sense, attempt to write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days.

The agony of writing. The ecstasy of typing word number 50,001. The emotional gamut is explored during 30 days for those who dare.

Actually, it’s not as crazy or as impossible as it seems. Broken down into bite sized pieces writing 50k words in 30 days isn’t crazy at all.

If you write daily it’s only 1667 words per day.

The average writer working at average typing speed can write 50k words in 55 hours. That’s less than 2 hours a day. Think about that. How many hours a day do you spend watching television or on the internet? A half hour in the morning. A half hour at lunch. An hour in the evening. That’s not so bad.

If you’ve ever told yourself that someday you’d write a novel why not make today that day.

Over the next 30 days I’ll be updating daily with writing tips, motivational speeches (I’m a great cheerleader) as well as some excerpts from my own 2007 NaNo Novel.

I have no plot. No outline. I tried to outline off and on for the last week but nothing really felt right. I woke up today with the opening lines in my head. No idea who she is or what her story is but here’s what my main character said:

“I am the other woman. The mistress. The adulterous. Don’t hate me until you’ve walked a mile in my heels.”

I’m not sure even what her name is but she’s demanding to be heard.

Filed under: NaNoWriMo, writing by Merlene