NaNoWriMo and Beyond

It's sort of like "to infinity and beyond" only with a lot more words and more caffeine.

Once again I've been participating in NaNoWriMo. It's my favorite part of November. Right now, I have 44510 words written; the goal is to write 50,000 words during November. So, I have fewer than 6,000 words to write in the next five days. I've been writing over 2K most days that I've written (no, I haven't written every day), so I don't think this is going to be a problem.

So why am I not celebrating? A few reasons. First, the end-of-NaNo blues. I always get a little bit sad when November and NaNo end. Adrift, not sure what to do. No group of other writers cheering me on, running with me toward that arbitrary goal. Second, I am worried that once again I will stall out with a partially written novel. I've won NaNoWriMo three times. I have three incomplete novels languishing in various locations around the house. This time, I need to do something different. I need to find that trigger inside me that will propel me to keep writing and finish a story! But how?

I may have a plan. I few of my friends and fellow writers also want to continue writing past November. I am hoping we will be able to keep each other going and that sometime early next year I will be here on this blog announcing a finished first draft.

One other thing that some of my fellow writers out there might find interesting and useful--I'm using a new piece of software to do my writing this year. That's right, I am writing my first draft on the computer rather than by hand. And I'm loving it. The new software is helping quite a lot with that. It's called Liquid Story Binder XE, and I highly recommend it. It's even on sale for 50% off during November. If you don't want to buy it right away though, no problem. They give you thirty days to try it out, but not thirty days in a row. Thirty days of actual usage, so if you use it on Monday and not again until Thursday, that's only two days of your free trial. It's a great set-up and a great piece of software.

And now it's time for the Thanksgiving preparations (really, I swear we just celebrated the New Year). Look for an "I won" post soon and then lots of planning and scheming for turning myself into a real writer who actually completes stories.