On November 1, 2011 I became a NANOWRIMO participant. If you don’t know what that is I’ll tell you. It’s “National Novel Writing Month”. It happens every November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. That’s 1,667 words every day. And yes, it’s quite a daunting task. Especially when you live in a house with two rambunctious kids and a four month old baby that needs a diaper change every thirty seconds.

I’ve been meeting the daily goal every day and I’m trying to get a little ahead, but it’s tough. I’ve wanted to try this NANOWRIMO thing for awhile, but this is my first attempt. If I can keep on track I’ll actually be a winner come November 30.

Getting to the 1,667 word goal before going to bed for the night makes me feel quite accomplished. I’ve noticed a couple of things in these first ten days. I need to learn to just let go of any ideas of perfection and get the words down. The whole premise for NANOWRIMO is quantity over quality. Not that your goal should be to write a boring ass novel. The goal is to end the month with a rough draft of a novel that you can polish and clean up later. I’m really into editing as I write and that slows down the process big time so I’ve had to learn a new method of writing.

For now, I’m keeping my story a secret, but eventually I hope that you all get a chance to read it.

I installed a word count widget in the sidebar in case you want to keep track of how I’m doing.

If you don’t see my word count increase by at least 1,667 words per day feel free to send me an encouraging message to kick my ass into gear.

Here’s a chart of where each NANOWRIMO participant should be everyday.

Oh yeah, day 10 actually feels like day 100.