Preparing to write my butt off

During November I'll be joining thousands of writers participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The objective is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (that breaks down to 1,667 words for each of 30 days.)

Of course, 50,000 words doesn't make a novel - even short novels are longer than that - but it makes a hell of a good first draft that can be fleshed out at a later time. I've been outlining an idea for a sequel to one of my earlier romances that readers have been asking for since 2002 (the future heroine was still in high school at that time, and I didn't want to write the story a year later and make her twenty-five, like dog years.) I still haven't completed the synopsis, but the story has legs and a theme.

Will I succeed in completing 50,000 words, even without cooking Thanksgiving dinner? Probably not. Will I do better than I did last year? Absolutely. Hell, even 25,000 words is a good start.

Any writers out there having trouble getting started or on a routine? Check out NaNoWriMo. Their website is http://www.nanowrimo.org .