National Novel Writing Month

I love the concept of NaNoWriMo. A month devoted entirely to writing a big steaming pile of first draft with a bunch of other inspired, crazy writers. I've participated a few times but I've never actually written anything during NaNo worth additional work or revision after the month was up. We're talking major crap writing. But it's fun. In 2011, I decided to skip NaNo. We were taking a trip to California and I didn't want to stress myself out over it. While in California I got the idea for my novel, Sail Away Home. I started writing it in December, spent about three months writing the beastly first draft and the next two years revising it. I finished the final revision a few weeks ago. The beast is complete. Done. Ready to see the world. (And by "done" and "ready" and "final revision" I mean that I'll probably go through it another half a dozen times taking words out and putting them back in again. I'm not sure a writer is ever completely done with revisions.)

I thought about participating in NaNoWriMo this year. My novel two years in the making is now complete. I have a new idea itching to get on paper. But it's a large, complicated idea and I don't want to hack it out in a month. I want to spend time on the first draft, savor it, try not to make such a mess of it. After spending two years revising one single manuscript I'm looking forward to the creative process of starting from scratch, of creating something new. I don't want to squeeze it all into a month.

Instead of participating in NaNo in the traditional barf-out-a-novel-in-a-month sense, I'm going to join in the fun by blogging. One bit of writerly advice out there is the importance of building a platform.  Ways to connect with readers, other writers, folks in the industry. Until recently, I've been too busy raising a kid, living on a boat and writing a novel to give two shits about blogging, or developing a Twitter following, or any of that stuff.

My NaNoWriMo plan is to get a start on a blog. It's the perfect time for me to do this. My finished novel is resting until after the holiday season. I'm not planning on querying agents until after the new year. I'm not going to start my next novel until I start querying the first. If I'm neck deep in a new novel I won't have much time to fret about what's going on with the first. So this NaNo I'll work on creating my platform. I'll keep polishing my query and synopsis for Sail Away Home. I'll daydream about my new novel, because I don't outline or character sketch or any of the other things smart, organized writers do. It's all in my head, which is totally frightening.

I'll have twenty-seven blog posts if I blog every day in November, starting with today. It'll be a great start. And yeah, I'm three days late to the NaNo party but I'm here now. Fingers flexed, ready to do this thing. Let's go!