When I was still a board member at Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, someone in the membership mentioned this new-ish thing called NaNoWriMo, which I see now was founded in 1999. This would have been circa 2005, because my now high-school-graduate was a toddler. And I’m not sure, but I think my now second novel, Courting Apparitions, started as a NaNoWrimo project.
My memory wants to blame our photographer Joan Zachary for the original intel, when she was still writing erotica and I was an idealistic young mother. Now, I’m the one on a panel at the Easton Book Festival talking about sex and she’s taking pictures.
But, back to NaNo, I haven’t tried it since.
Now, many of you, especially if you aren’t writers are screaming from the other side of the Internet, “What is a NaNoWriMo?”
It’s shorthand for National Novel Writing Month. And it happens every November. The challenge is to band together with other writers and write a brand new novel of at least 50,000 words in one month.
And now apparently, now remember for me this is 15 years later, there’s a “thing” called Preptober. Since you’re not supposed to have a single word of the new project written before November 1, there is a movement to prepare for the challenge in October.
I started a playlist on my personal Spotify channel, Angel R. Ackerman, (the profile pic has me with a cat) with podcasts discussing NaNoWriMo and Preptober. I’ve announced a new project in the Fashion and Fiends series. And I might just pluck a new idea from my list, delaying Road Trip (book four) and Absolution (book five). Finding Hooyo (book six) has about 40,000 words already so that’s too drafted to qualify, same with Road Trip.
For more information on NaNoWriMo, visit nanowrimo.org. And join us if you dare. Remember, we also have a writing sprint room on OhWrite.co: Join us in our room.
Looking for a #writingchallenge? Join #NaNoWriMo2022
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