NaNoWriMo 2012 - Count me In!

Okay, I'm putting my stake in the ground: I am going to be participating in NaNoWriMo in November 2012. 

For those of you who don't know what NaNo is, I cadged this off their site: National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2011, we had 256,618 participants and 36,843 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

My goal is 90K wds, since I want to get the first draft of my next novel completed (that's 3K a day - eek!). It's the sequel to Death In The Family. I don't have a title yet, but I have most of a plot worked out: Tom Franklin is slowly learning to cope with the supernatural changes that overtook him when he returned to his birth place of Coombedown, but after a long, difficult Summer, there are more challenges to face and his hazy memory is not helping. On top of the continuing changes to his body, Tom has to deal with The Powers That Be, some of whom aren't happy with him walking free, while supporting his 'little brother', Sean in his first days at a new school and trying to patch up his friendship with Phil. Tom thinks he has enough on his plate, but then a new arrival throws his isolated world into turmoil.

I may just be sharing my anguish progress with my blog from time to time! ;P