Words of Redemption

NaNoWriMo 2008 is just around the corner. As in tomorrow.

I gotta admit, I’m equal parts excited, scared and wondering what the heck I’m thinking.

Most of you will likely recall that this crazy experiment of me pretending to be a writer started with NaNoWriMo 2007 and has continued on over the last year with this blog and much fun in the world of short story writing, which is only like noveling as Micro Machines are to Formula One cars.

NaNo 2007 was a pretty amazing experience. For the first time in my life, I sat down every day to do something that I’d been wishing on wanting to do for nearly 30 years. It’s no surprise that I haven’t stopped since then.

But as much as I loved NaNo 2007, I have high hopes for NaNo 2008.

For starters, I’m pretty excited about this book, even though it’s not the story I’ve been intending to write for the past ten months. The title is “The Siege of Thaddeus Wilkes” and it’s a novel that started out as a short story that I could never seem to finish, but which I couldn’t seem to let go of. When I considered making it novel-length, the floodgates opened. Now I think I will have a looooong book, but everybody likes a good epic right? I can promise it will be an epic. The picture above is a shot of the bulletin board in my office. That’s all I’m telling about the story, though it says a lot, I think.

Other reasons for excitement:

1. Unlike last years novel, which is no longer with us, I intend to finish this one.
2. I’ve learned a lot more about writing in the last year than I knew during NaNo 2007.
3. I am better prepared this year than last year, having spent the last two months solid planning and researching this novel.
4. Rather than stopping around 50,000 words, I am committed to writing 2,000+ words every day until I finish. My best guess is that this book will come in around 120,000 words, meaning that I’ll be writing from November 1 until December 31. NaNoWriTwoMo or NaNoWriDosMo if you like… Somebody grab the domain name.

In spite of all of this excitement, I must admit that I’m also a little anxious and nervous. I honestly and truly expect, in spite all my writing and prep over the last year, that NaNo will be harder for me this year. Some reasons:

1. Unlike last years novel, which is no longer with us, I intend to finish this one.
2. I’ve learned a lot more about writing in the last year than I knew during NaNo 2007
3. I am better prepared this year than last year, having spent the last two months solid planning and researching this novel.
4. Rather than stopping around 50,000 words, I am committed to writing 2,000+ words every day until I finish. My best guess is that this book will come in around 120,000 words, meaning that I’ll be writing from November 1 until December 31. NaNoWriTwoMo or NaNoWriDosMo if you like… Somebody grab the domain name.

Funny how that works. My strengths may in fact be my weaknesses.

We shall see. Hard or not, you can bet I’ll be crossing the finish line again this year.

I believe I promised daily updates here at one point, but I will only do that once daily word count has been achieved, so don’t be surprised if I post less than daily for the next two months. Be surprised if I post at all for that matter. If you want the daily dose, there’s always Twitter, where I shared my daily progress last year and will do so again this year.

NaNoWriMo profile: TheSatch

Twitter profile: TheSatch

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