12 Questions About Your NaNoWriMo Plans

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I just about spit out my chai latte when someone pointed out that NaNoWriMo is next month. Shouldn’t I have an author radar alerting me? For less than three years, I’ve known about NaNoWriMo and I realized I needed much more than a two-day heads up to decide whether or not I’m going to participate.

I love the idea of committing to a seemingly inconceivable goal. I imagine myself rising at 4am with a pot of  tea, a pipe (purely for atmosphere), probably a stylish hat, dipping ink, and a quill. The reality is, the past two years I’ve used NaNoWriMo more as a writing goal month and I’ve never actually gone for the full 50,000 words. I’d wake up late, squeeze out 200 words onto my computer in my jammies , and call it a successful day. That’s okay, but this year…this year I’m ready to try something bigger.

So, for those new to NaNo:

What is it? Na (National) No (Novel) Wri (Writing) Mo (Month), pronounced exactly how it looks: nano (like a nanobot) wrimo (like “rhino”). In short, NaNoWriMo is writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days through the month of November.

How do you participate? The NaNoWriMo website allows a FREE sign up, it helps you keep track of your daily word count, and provides support groups. Instead of trying to sum up everything here, take a look at the NaNo FAQ page.

How to Prepare. I’m still a novice in this area, especially because I’ve never gone for the full goal, but my publisher whom I greatly respect has written a book that’s perfect for NaNoWriMoers: Write Your Novel in a Month.

I used Jeff Gerke’s writer-help books way before I actually got contracted with him and his books have never steered me wrong. I highly recommend them. And not only is the above book great for NaNoWriMo, but it’s a useful resource for writing a novel in general.

In conclusion, I want to know where everyone is at with NaNoWriMo. I put together a little questionnaire to help me know where I’m at, and to help me know where you’re at. And, hopefully to help you know where you’re at. 😉 Because it’s time to figure that out. We only have a few weeks, you know.

Here’s my NaNoWriMo status:

I would love to know your answers to any or all of these questions. Please post them in the comments section.

Here’s an extra parchment with just the questions in case you want to use it on your site or just for yourself. 🙂