With Autumn Comes NaNoWriMo

Summer gave way to autumn yesterday. At least that’s what the calendar said. I heard it mentioned on the news a time or two, as well.

Temperatures drop quite a bit when the sun gets close to the horizon and oranges and reds begin to punctuate the greens in the trees, but it still doesn’t seem like autumn.

The light hasn’t changed, yet. When the light changes, it will be autumn.

The departure of summer and arrival of autumn (officially) signals more than just the passing of time.

This year, it means National Novel Writing Month is also approaching. And quite quickly.

In June of this year, I decided to give National Novel Writing Month a try. It seemed at the time like I had a lot of time to get ready. I had five months, after all. That’s a long time.

But now I’m looking October in the face and National Novel Writing Month is less than six weeks away. What happened to all those months?

I have my idea selected (unless something better comes along … always a possibility!). I’ve even conducted some research. Some scenes have been plotted in my mind and I know about where the story will start and about where it will end.

But I’ve spent most of my writing time rewriting Perfect Opportunities, which sometimes seems right on the cusp of completion and sometimes seems like a lost cause.

I’ve been trying not to think about NaNoWriMo. If I think about it too much, I’ll want to write something other than research or plotting notes. Too much planning causes stagnation, so my plan right now is simple: Don’t think about it!

For the most part, I’ve been successful.

That has its own risks, though. I visualize waking up on November 1, realizing it’s time to start writing and not having a clue what I’m supposed to do.

I also visualize waking up on November 30 and realizing the whole month is gone and I forgot all about it. (I don’t think there’s much chance of that, but part of the job of a writer is to ask “what if” and go from there. Why not think big?)

The real challenge for the next five weeks or so is going to be maintaining momentum on the rewrites and avoiding getting too caught up in a new idea that might still be hot and therefore a distraction when November 1 rolls around.

I’m not sure how that’s going to work. I most likely won’t have the answer until after the fact.

I am looking forward to the challenge, though. Whether I end up using the current idea or working with something totally new, it will be fun to make up a story day-by-day with the goal of having it done in thirty days.

Wow!

Talk about a morale booster!

Stay tuned.