For the third year in a row, the changing colors of fall mean NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month is coming. This is where people sign up to write 50,000 words in the thirty days of November. What people, you ask? Why, all types of people. Authors, published and pre-published (like me); teachers, students, mechanics, businesspeople, mothers, teens, rocket scientists. . . Well, I’m not sure about that last one, but they could, if they wanted.

It’s free to sign up and fun to do. There’s a sense of community and mutual encouragement that goes along with signing up for a project on the website. There are tips and tricks, coaching on character creation, plot building, and other aspects of storycraft. Games, like word sprints where writers are challenged to produce as many words as they can within a specified amount of time, and challenges. There are prizes to be won and merchandise (much of it with huge discounts) that can be purchased to help with the organizations other goal: promoting literacy through the crafting of stories.

If you’re interested check out the link above to see what it’s all about. There are also NaNo Camps periodically throughout the year where smaller word count challenges exist. If you’ve ever thought about writing a novel yourself, this is a great way to get started.

My project this year is to complete Siren Crux (working title), my current WIP. It is book one of a series I’m calling the Hidden Path series. It is a spin-off from the first series I am querying called the Patterns of Light, of which book 1 is The Patterner’s Choice. They are Scottish fantasies, though Siren Crux takes place on an invented island created by the Patterner for those desiring to leave human earth behind.

I’m currently at a word count of nearly 52,000 and expect to finish at about 95,000 words. If you’re into math (which I’m definitely not) you can see that I won’t make my 50k goal with that one book. So, I’ve planned to continue work on book 2 of the Hidden Path series which is sitting at about 10,000 words currently. I can nearly double my word count on book 2 by the end of November AND complete book 1! I’m so excited for these goals.

To prepare, I’m rereading everything I’ve written so far to work out any inconsistencies and solidify the plot in my head. Be doing this, I’ll be ready to take off fingers blazing on the first of November.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and the information. If you do please like and share this post on your social media. Also, leave comments below so we can connect! Thank you so much for reading. I’ll be back in two weeks with a NaNo wrap-up.

(I wrote this in October so as not to take away from fiction words during NaNo. Smart, huh?)

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