NaNoWriMo Pact

Bill's Commitment

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month which takes place during the entire month of November and 50,0000 words are completed in 30 days. I learned about it as a graduate student at Baylor University from my favorite author, S.L. Veihl (author of the Stardoc novels and the blog Paperback Writer). She and her blog inspired me to try my hand at writing and it's taken over ten years of fits and starts before I found a path that I have started to beat back.

NaNoWriMo is the ultimate challenge for me and I've been putting it off for when my life is less crazy... fewer obligations... more time to fully commit... Strangely, these are all excuses I hear from people who put off having kids. The reality is there is never going to be a right or perfect time for me. I will always have excuses for why I should put it off next year.

I'm not doing that anymore. I am committing now, today. Come November 1, 2016 I will start my novel. I may not finish. I may not get to 50,000 words, that's 1,666.66 words a day for 30 day (Yikes!) but I'm going to commit.



I've had a story idea floating around for over a year now, of the urban fantasy variety, thanks to an idea from my best friend. I told him he should write the story. When he said, No, I told him that I was going to write it. He agreed, even seemed happy about it.

I'm crazy, this scares me, but I'm doing it anyway. I signed up at the official NaNoWriMo website: www.nanowrimo.org and now I need to work my way through the NaNo Prep.

NaNo Prep #1: What will I write about? Tell it in only one sentence.
NaNo Prep #2: Who are my characters? Give a name, basic character traits and back story.
NaNo Prep #3: When is the story taking place?
NaNo Prep #4: Where is the story taking place? Think about key locations and settings.
NaNo Prep #5: Why? The  motive of the story and the quest for the answer that drives the story.

From the blogs I've read I know some people spend all year preparing for this single month of writing, but I don't have that time. I'll do what I can with the time I have left before November 1, 2016.