Step One in Pursuit of Insanity: Write a Novel in One Month Several Months in a Row

Welcome back!

I’ll bet you’re reading the title and thinking either I’m already insane or you have no idea what I’m talking about.

For those who haven’t done it, writing a 50,000 word novel is a particular bit of insanity the collective Internet goes through every November. This phenomena is called the National Novel Writing Month, or NanoWriMo for short. The premise is simple: write 50,000 words in one month. Now whether it’s a usable first draft, a steaming pile of dung, or a stream of consciousness novel consisting of the sentence “I’m a fish!” repeated over and over again is entirely up to you, the writer.

What I’m doing is to have my own personal NanoWriMo, but instead of going through just November, I’ll be starting in September and continuing through October and ending in November.

Yes, that’s over 150,000 words, or at least 3 complete first drafts in 3 months. In December I’ll be drinking heavily to recuperate and will probably shy away from keyboards, pens or any other writing implements like a vampire does sunlight. Either way, it’ll be an interesting exercise and I’m curious to see if I can accomplish it like I did NanoWriMo in previous years.

The only deviation from my course I might do is take a part of the second month to complete another 10,000 words for a YA novel I’m writing for my niece (which is what I’ll be working on during September) and round it out to 60,000 words (which seems to be the industry standard for YA fiction from what I’ve read). Then I’ll segue into the second book of my own novel series during October.

Now, since I need to get the YA novel done in time for December, I’m thinking of doing some editing/re-writing during November/October instead of another draft. Although I haven’t made a firm decision either way, if I decide to go the third draft route, I may opt to start on the 3rd book of my series or perhaps a short story collection.

Either way, it’s going to be an interest next couple of months.