National Novel Writing Month.
A few months ago I started working on a young adult novel. I had the plot mapped out in my head start to finish, a detailed chapter by chapter outline, and had done the necessary research. Even with the skeleton of the story sorted out, I couldn’t bring myself to sit down and start writing. I’m rusty, I haven’t worked on any creative writing projects in years and I was scared to write badly. So instead of just diving in and starting a draft to edit and improve later, as all writers recommend, I didn’t write at all and spent every single day feeling guilty about it. Until Sunday night! I cranked out 500 words, and while they might be terrible I now have a starting point on the novel and knocked the first layer of dust off my writing skills.
I decided to join NaNoWriMo this year to maintain forward momentum and word count accountability. I might not have a first draft of the manuscript by the end of the month but I will be closer to my goal of completing a draft by the end of the year. My username is Paperbackgirl, is anyone else participating?
