National Writing Month begins tomorrow, and this year I have decided to participate!

If you are wondering what the heck National Novel Writing Month is, you can find out by visiting the website. In short, this is a personal challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month. The theory is that without a deadline looming, it is difficult--if not almost impossible--to get that novel you have always wanted to write down on paper. Committing to this will give you a clear goal and a clear deadline, and hopefully the extra push you need to start your first novel instead of forever putting it off until later.

Getting 50,000 words written in a simgle month is a crazy breakneck writing speed, but the hope is that the frenzied pace will allow creativity and spontanaity to come out that otherwise would have been suffocated with overplanning and procrastination. For me, at least, I can find it much too easy to outline again and again, forever putting off the day of actually putting fingers to keyboard and hammering out those first few chapters.

I have a very basic outline prepared for how my story will unfold, and pages of randomly jotted details and notations about different characters, but have not done any solid work on it yet. I have been thinking about starting this book for months, so by this point I can picture a lot of it clearly in my head already, but always the day of actually starting on it in earnest has been delayed and delayed. Basically, I keep getting distracted by short stories. Every time I think I am ready to buckle down and finally start a full length work, I seem to see several more anthologies I can't resist submitting to. Lately, I have also been considering editing an anthology of my own (which I admit would be very exciting). But from November 1st-30th this year, I am making a solemn vow to swear off the short story distractions and focus on a single project--my first novel.

I'm so excited about this new venture! A book of my own seems fun, but also daunting and intense. So wish me luck! I will try to keep you posted on my progress as the month goes along. I won't be blogging about the plot much 'till I'm finished. (But I'm sure to drop a lot of hints.)   ; )

Sign up and join me! Accept the challenge and start your novel tomorrow, November 1st!