November is Get That Demon Out Of Your Head Month, or Nanowrimo for short. It's also a motivational project that inspires writers to get their books written. NaNoWriMo is free to sign up and offers a spot on the web for writers to connect to Writing buddies, making this solitary endeavor a little less solitary. It's pretty much a book marathon--get 50,000 words out by the end of the month and you win. Yay!

This is my first year doing the NaNo thing. I'm username AshKrafton if anyone wants to buddy up.



I'm using NaNo as an opportunity to organize my WIP "Words That Bind," a paranormal romance involving a licensed clinical social worker and a genie who is searching for his talisman (and a way to deal with his overbearing mother. Wackiness ensues.) I've entered the opening pages and synopsis into several contests and got great feedback--as well as a prize or three--so I know it's a project worth completing. I've just lacked the proper motivation.

Until now.

Since I work dayjob every other day, I will augment my daily writing with an equal word count of text already written. So, the more new stuff I get down, the more old stuff I can slip in on my non-writing days. That's how I'm going to get this book done.

I've been planning the book for months--researching proper form of romance novel structure, making a story board, arranging climactic scenes, creating conflicts and character dimension--but I haven't written anything to bring it all together.

Then I sat down yesterday, stack of looseleaf and a purple pen, and I wrote 1500 shiny new words. I broke my frozen standstill. I moved forward. I got back to writing this book.

Thanks, NaNoWriMo. I am a winner already.