It’s been a long time since I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month. Since starting the Dragons of Arethia trilogy, I have always been in the midst of that project during NaNoWriMo, and it never quite made sense to try fitting the project into the 50k goal. Actually, fun tidbit, the Dragons of Arethia stories came about as the back story to an incomplete NaNoWriMo novel that, while I hit the 50k word goal, was never actually completed. Maybe someday I’ll revive that, but I hit the 50k word goal by writing lots of long, rambly word-building notes, and I jumped around in the plot a lot when I got stuck, so I’m not sure if that will ever become a real novel.
Anyway, I have absolutely no extra time in which to write a novel, but that is exactly the point of NaNoWriMo, as I see it. It shall force me to carve out the time that is needed. I’m doing something different this year, too. I’m planning some of my story ahead. I’ve always been a little more go-with-the-flow with my writing, but I’m trying a mystery story, and I’ve always thought that the author would have to have some idea of the answer to the riddle as they lay out the story and parcel out clues. We shall see how it goes!
