Hello November! Hello National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo! This annual event is currently on day eleven. Ever dreamed about writing a novel and needed some kind of motivation to start? Well, if you sign up for this worldwide event, it might just give you the kick in the pants you need. It’s free to register. (Go here: https://nanowrimo.org/) Just log in and register your daily word count. All writers who make it to 50,000 words by the end of November are considered winners. It’s no easy task, but when you break down the event into daily goals, you’re only writing 1,667 words a day. That’s less than a short story a day. If you’ve got a story in your head, that might be only a few hours or less of typing. Hate typing? Handwriting counts too (though that makes counting words far more time consuming).

It’s important to note that you do not have to share what you write with anyone else. First drafts are expected to be rough. The whole point of the event is just to get it out of your head. From there, the hardest work is done. If you have dreams of seeing the story in print, it will take more revisions and more writing, but you’ll find those pieces come together far quicker than when you’re sitting in front of a cursor wondering how to start at all.

In 2022, I took on my first NaNoWriMo challenge. I wanted to tell a story about a farmer and the warehouse boom we’re seeing here in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t my genre (I cut my teeth on historical fiction, not contemporary!), and yet it was burning to get out of my head. Well, I found that before I even got to November 30, I had my 50,000 words. As you now know, The Last Farm emerged. Sure, that first draft was rough. The editing process began. At least 10,000 words were added to tie up loose ends. Things changed more as I got other people’s feedback, but eventually, a year and four months later, the story released (April 1, 2024). Now it is my hottest selling book!

I found that sitting down to write a story all at once instead of in pieces over the course of years made it far easier to connect my plot points. There was far less editing involved than with any of my other novels. True, The Last Farm is also about half the size of the books in the Swords of Resilience series, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own spark and power.

So I took on the challenge again this year! There’s another story burning to get out of my head. If I can get it all done despite the crazy life events happening this month, I will tell you all about it. The point though is this: I’m writing again. And I’m writing fast. It’s not too late for you to join in, take the NaNoWriMo challenge yourself if you’re so inclined to finish that idea that’s been stirring in your head. You never know what will come of it!