NaNoWriMo ’13

2013 Winner Vertical BannerI just completed my seventh National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in a row writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This year I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it. I have so incredibly much going on that when I feel behind by 11K words two weeks ago, I never thought I would recover from it. But recover I did and I finished it today. Now I can focus on all the other things… no rest for the wicked!

NaNoWriMo 2011

Five years. Wow. Five years in a row, two as a Municipal Liaison (though I was so busy this November I hardly did anything) and five completed novels. People keep asking me if I will post them. The answer is an unqualified no. What I write is not even first draft. It’s rough sketch at best. As such, it’s also highly embarrassing. I don’t want to share that stuff with people. This year, I plan on focusing my efforts and either pulling one of the five into better shape or doing something new but not in sketch mode but actual author mode. I promise select friends will be asked to proof that and give me constructive feedback and, later, everyone else will get a shot at reading it. Whatever it ends up being.

I spent this year doing a lot of self-analysis and figuring out where I was weak as a writer and what I needed to work on. I now have a list of areas I want to target and am going to be looking at resources to help me (classes, books, whatever). I want to make 2012 the year I get my act together, hone my ability as a writer, and go from playing around with words to working with them instead. In short, me want write good.

But for the moment, I’ll just bask in the glow of five straight years as a NaNo winner. I’ll get to work tomorrow.