Give Me Inspiration!

Somebody, somewhere, started a tradition of "Write a Novel in a Month", and determined that November should be that month. I don't know all the rules ... maybe there aren't any rules, to speak of. But when I first heart of this concept, I thought of the 125,000 words that usually make up one of my rough drafts. I guess I assumed you were supposed to be writing a rough draft, because otherwise you are re-writing, and for me, that usually means tightening up and removing words, not adding them.

This past spring, I heard a writer friend read from one of his November projects at a local convention, and that prompted me to ask a few questions. His answers encouraged me to ask other friends about their participation in this annual event. I think someone said the goal was to write 50,000 words in a month, another might have said 25,000. One of those is less than 1,000 words per day, the other is closer to 2,000 words.

Now that I'm working a day job again, my writing time has gotten ... hard to find. Which is sad. Unlike so many authors I've talked to, I LIKE to write.

So I decided that this year, I would give November a try. I even sat down and figured out how many words I would have to write in a day to wind up with 50,000 of them by December. I didn't like that answer, so I counted weekend days and holidays as 2 days each, since I won't have to work on those days. That got me to a more believable number of words for a workday.

Hey, I wonder if that's why November was chosen, because it's got so many holidays in it, for Americans? There's Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and the Day After Thanksgiving. I can't think of any other month that actually has 3 holidays in it.

I have a rough draft of a novel that I've been working on, so I can work on that. If I get that done – not likely, because I don't think I've even gotten 10,000 words written – I've got a rough draft for a short circling around in my mind. The ideas are there, I just can't seem to focus on getting them down on paper. I hope that 'inspiration' doesn't dry up once I try so hard to pound them out on the keyboard.

Wish me luck!