I’ve never done the NaNo thing before – last year I was too caught up in just trying to finish that first book to think about taking anything else on. (Plus I was taking way too many workshops). It wasn’t until about late January when I attempted to institute a 1000 word/day policy that I really started getting somewhere – I had about 28,000 words then. As of mid-April I had 102 k – you do the math.
I think what it comes down to for me is that I do tend to work better under pressure. I had joined a group called Whip your WIP, which is now defunct – but something about being held accountable for a daily word count really seemed to keep me in line. For some reason I’m having issues getting back into that groove (although given the back surgery and all that, I *am* going to give myself a bit of a pass).
So I think I’m going to try this. However, yes, I’ll be cheating – I am going to work with what I’ve already started. (For NaNo purpose I obviously won’t count my current wordcount). The reason for this is two-fold. 1) 50k won’t be a complete novel for me, anyway and 2) According to the FAQ of NaNo it’s to help people get writing without getting bogged down in characters, etc. I don’t think that’s a problem for me so much as just getting off my ass to do the thing.
The end result should be 50k words. As long as I reach that, then it doesn’t really matter to me where they go.
Anyone who wants to be my writing buddy, I’m listed on the NaNo site as mynfel. 🙂
