NaNoWriMo 2016

November is upon us and with it comes National Novel Writing month - also known as NaNoWriMo. Every year, during NaNoWriMo, writers from all around the world come together in the challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. For the last two years I've been eyeing NaNoWriMo and thinking how I would like to join in but I gave myself excuses not to. So this year, when I really do have good reasons not to do it (impending publication and baby doe to put in an appearance very soon) I decided to give it a go. I don't know what I was thinking either.

No, scratch that, I do know what I was thinking. Tor.com put out a call for submissions of novellas set in Non-European cultures and I've had an idea for a while for a novella set in the arctic, involving a culture loosely based on the Inuit. I also feel like I need to give myself some space from Ashael before I start book 2 of her story. So everything seemed to come together at the perfect time for NaNoWriMo.

Of course, I spent the first week of November proofreading Ashael Rising so I'm already behind on the word count. And I need to set up posts for here for most of December because I plan on taking some time off. And I have flash pieces to write for Patreon.

Still, I'm sure I'll catch up.

Submissions are open until the 12th of January so if I have a novella ready to submit by then, I'll count it as a win - whether I'm finished the first draft before the 1st of December or not. If it's not ready in time or - more likely - Tor don't want it then I'll still have a novella to do something interesting with! So, watch this space. I'll be keeping you updated about my progress.

Have you tried NaNoWriMo? Would you like to give it a go? Let me know in the comments!