Nanowrimo On My Own Terms

Like a true renegade, I just decided to do Nanowrimo, only on my own terms. Every year I fall afoul of Thanksgiving, and then I fall behind, and don't finish before Nano ends. It's so frustrating that I was going to opt out this year. But then in a stroke of genius I realized I could keep with the spirit of Nanowrimo, by writing 50,000 words in 30 days, only it would be my choice of 30 days, not theirs. So I'm going to start on Oct. 10 or 11, and go to Nov. 10 or 11, 2013. So it will still be 30 days, and after Nov. 1, I can still track my progress on Nanowrimo's graphs. I'm sure other people have thought of this. It will be obeying the spirit of the quest if not the letter of the law. And it will be a lot more fun this way.

It will also create less stress in my home during the holidays. I won't lose days worth of writing time because of traveling to see family for the holidays.

Working on a Book

A few days ago I started writing a new book. It is my goal and dream to have it published by a publisher, and even though I'd happily self-publish it and hope at some point a publisher would sign me on, and take the book and run with it, from what I've seen on the Internet, self-publishing is the kiss of death to a book if you ever want it to be published for the world at large.
So as much as I'd like to share excerpts I'm going to try to have some wisdom and play it close to my chest. I will talk about the process of writing the book however.

I recently turned 50 and after being told for years I should write books, and even getting a fortune in a cookie saying "You will write a book" I've never managed to finish any of the books I started, or even Nanowrimo for that matter. Undaunted however, I am starting again.

The genre of this book is probably going to be fantasy. I try to keep the fantasy out of my books but I always end up there eventually.

So far I have 12 characters, 7 boys and five girls. I've drawn a map of where they live so I can see how close or far apart they might be which should help the flow of the book immensely. For example, if I write, 'They all met at the park in the middle of town,' it helps to know where the middle of town is, what the name of the park is, and how close they live to it. And who would logically walk to the park with whom. What stores will they pass? What logical characters would they meet? So with the map firmly in hand, I'll be able to visualize it so much better.

So far everything is written in longhand, so at some point I'll have to type it all into my computer before I screw around and misplace the notebook it's in, which I am notorious for doing. The next step is to draw each character so I can keep straight who has what color hair and who wears glasses and so forth. Anyway, on with the show. Wish me luck.