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I’m going to fail NaNoWriMo this year.

For those who don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month. The premise is simple: write 50,000 words in a month. Sounds daunting, right? It is. It’s also a wicked rush, and a lot of fun. I’ve done it the past three years in a row, and succeeded every time. This year, I’m going to fail, and I’m OK with it.

The biggest difference this year is the lack of one cohesive novel idea. Instead I have a series of short stories and blog posts I’m working on, all with different needs and different developmental stages. The result is a little chaotic. Without one sole focus, the ideas are bouncing around a bit more than usual, and keeping an accurate word count is proving problematic.  What’s a disorganized writer to do?

The answer is simple: Everything. Do everything, and let the words come as they will, whether the end result is 50 or 50,000. The tweet below sums up my feelings perfectly:

https://twitter.com/AmeliaAngelRose/status/397204084685410304

So that’s the plan for this November. And maybe that’s not such a failure after all.

Every November, writers across the world take up a unique and mildly insane-sounding challenge: National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. The goal is simple and daunting at the same time: “write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30,” as NaNo’s website states. I’ve undertaken the task for the past two years, in 2010 and 2011, and have made goal both years. This year’s novel is well on its way, and just like in the previous years the rush is amazing. NaNo isn’t for the faint of heart, but I’d encourage writers of all genres, backgrounds, and experience levels to give it a try.