Preptober 2023: Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

Happy Halloween, Happy sweater weather, and Happy last day of Preptober for those of us doing NaNoWriMo!!!

Yes, it is NaNoWriMo season once again. Kicking off tomorrow, November 1st, thousands of people all over the world will take on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. At least that is the official challenge. The last two years, I’ve taken it on and somehow managed to win! This year, I’m doing things a little different. I am participating as a NaNo Rebel, as individuals who go off script are called. I will use my 30 days for 50 hours of editing and revision of my current work in progress Forge and Vine. This will be a huge goal considering I’ve spend less than ten hours a month working on it the last several months.

My original deadline for publication was over six months ago, but it seemed the more I dug into it, the more there was to do to make it the novel I know it is meant to be. I have been struggling to buckle down to make myself work on the edits for this one, and it has been disheartening to say the least. Having so much to do is overwhelming! I know it will be worth it in the end; I just have to remind myself of that. It is not fair to the story if I don’t put the work in to do it justice. I’m hoping NaNo will be the motivation I need to push through to the end in order to get this published by the end of the year.

To prep for NaNo, I’ve made scene lists, created a timeline, and filled out details in my story bible. I have been neglecting it, which will no doubt come back to bite me in the ass later. If you’ve been around for a while, you probably know that I’m a pantser, which is the best way for me to write prose and discover the story and characters, but at this point in this project, I need a bit of organization.

This is the biggest project I’ve worked on, my last one being around 35,000 words, if I remember correctly. This one will be closing in on 80,000 words by the time is it complete, I think. The longer the work, the more that happens, the more complex the world, and the more there is to keep track of. I am reading a couple of plotting books to give me a little guidance on my structure and to make sure my genre specific beats are all there and at about the right time. Turns out, I knew instinctively how (structurally at least) to write a romance, probably because I’ve read roughly a million romance novels in my day. I’m not as strong at the fantasy part, so I’m working on that.

I’ve also recently been blessed with a writing friend who is willing to let me bounce ideas off her. She isn’t participating in NaNo, but is currently working on a first draft of an urban fantasy that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the outline for. It’s very intriguing. I look forward to long conversations over coffee and drinks about our books as the weeks go by.

That’s it from me for now. I am planning on giving weekly updates on my progress, so stay tuned for at least social media posts to tell you how many hours I’ve logged. I might also get additional check ins to you, but I’m not going to over promise. But for now…

Happy writing! Happy reading!