Thursday, October 28, 2010

Just About Time For...NANOWRIMO!


So here we are. It's almost November. The leaves are changing. The air is cooling. And I smell fresh ink in the distance. That's right, it's just about time for National Novel Writing Month.

National Novel Writing Month - or NanoWrimo for short - is a contest that writers from all over the world participate in each year. The goal? To write 50,000 words within 30 days. Those who embark and accomplish this insane endeavor receive a certificate of completion at the end of the month, a good dose of self-respect, admiration from fellow colleagues, not to mention they get to hold a 50,000 word manuscript in their hands.

NanoWrimo is perfect for those who have 'always wanted' to write a novel. NanoWrimo is a great tool to get the draft of my next novel done. If you calculate 50,000 words out across 30 days, you find you have 1,667 words a day that need to be written in order to stay within a healthy average. Me? Well, I've been known to finish NanoWrimo in 8 days before. Usually I finish in about 12-15 though. Once I start writing and give myself the freedom to go crazy in November...well, at that point, there's really no stopping me.

Usually for NanoWrimo, I write drafts to sequels within my scifi/fantasy series. One year I did a short story anthology - which from that anthology, my Black Earth series was born. But this year I decided to do something a bit different. I'm writing a stand alone novel - my first really - that takes place in the Black Earth/Expired Reality universe but can be read completely separate from both series. I'm titling it Eternal Midnight, and it's about a girl, Sage, who escapes Midnight City in search of an ancient text that can clear out the darkness that engulfs her world.

I'm in good shape for Nano this year because of the Nano Prep challenges I did on Writing.com through the whole month of October. You can check out some tidbits of what I've written so far in my profile on Writing.com.

So if you're a fellow writer - or wannabe writer - go ahead and turn on your email forwarding, lock the doors, put on a pot of coffee, and let your imagination go wild. What better time to do it! Head over to www.nanowrimo.org to set up your profile. And you can friend me if you'd like. My user name is DavidCorbin.
 
Then get ready for November 1st. That's when the fun starts!

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