Jeff O'Handley, Author

Jeff O'Handley

The Doubting Writer Finds His Voice

NaNo Yes or NaNo No…or NaNo Sort of?

If you’ve been around this space any length of time, you’ll know I’ve documented my feelings and beliefs about NaNoWriMo before–and if I had bothered to stick one of those widgets with keyword terms in the sidebar (and if I had bothered to keyword all of my posts) you’d be able to find them all. Generally, if you’re new here and don’t want to scour through all my posts, my position is I believe NaNoWriMo can be a Very Good Thing for people. It definitely helped me get myself going down this crazy path.

Unfortunately, I rarely seem to be able to get it together to do NaNo these days. Why?

(let’s hear it for the criminally-underrated Road to El Dorado)

It seems since my last attempt at NaNo (and what a joke that was; I’m not sure I wrote a single word), the stars have not been aligned. I’ve always been revising. Well, not this year. However, I’m also not exactly starting a new project. AS I mentioned last week (I think), I’m about 22,000 words into a new project, and said new project is going well. NaNo, in theory, is for novels that are started on November 1, though you are free to outline the shit out of it before hand. Still, this seems like a good opportunity, does it not? If I can add 50,000 words to the manuscript by the end of November I’ll be around 70,000, and that will mean an end is definitely in sight. So, with that in mind, I’m going to bend the rules of NaNo a bit and throw my hat into the ring. Strike up the band, I’m a….

How about you? Are you NaNo’ing this year?

10 Responses

  1. That's basically my approach. I'm not formally joining in, but I'm going to use the month (and all that NaNo enthusiasm) to encourage me to write for an entire month with my inner editor turned off. I've never done it before, but the timing just worked out, as I find myself between projects and a new idea on my mind.

    Good luck! Hope you get many, many words written. 🙂

  2. It's a great idea to work on your WIP for NaNo. Good luck!

    (Thanks for stopping by my blog. No, no one does Halloween in Egypt… They do Christmas though.)

  3. I'm Nanoing this year. I have never completed a novel in a month but I love the challenge and community. This year I'm doing a fantasy and also a horror under a pseudonym. Good luck with your novel Jeff.

  4. I have an ms to get to my agent by the end of November. I need another 20-30,000 words before it's finished, but NaNoWriMo is the kind of encouragement I'll use

  5. -Jemi–that's the fun way to write! Good luck, see you over there!

    -L.G.–I wish you luck. I hope your new idea blossoms fully.

    -Lexa–It's always a pleasure to read your blog–and thanks for the answer–it's always interesting to hear about other places.

    -Sheena-kay–You're doing TWO NaNos??? That's what it looks like. Best of luck with both, and I hope you enjoy the process!

    -Donna–Thanks, Donna. Best of luck with your latest project!

    -P.D.–Nice to see you back. Glad you're excited for NaNo, and good luck!

  6. Rules are made to be broken, JeffO, and I don't think anyone is going to arrest you for using an idea that you've already started for NaNoWriMo this year. I'm doing something similar this year–turning a 2700 word short story into a 50k+ novel. Best of luck to you! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe for Updates

For announcements, alerts and special offers, subscribe to our emails.  Please note, you will have to confirm your subscription through an email to the address you provide.

Follow Jeff O'Handley

Jeff O'Handley ©2024 - All Rights Reserved.