A true writer can’t resist a writing challenge.

It takes a crazy person to pile them on, one on top of another. 🙂

About a week ago I decided to commit to doing Camp NaNoWriMo, a somewhat more laid-back version of the November National Novel Writing Month, where you can choose a wider variety of things to write and can make your own word count goal.

Back in November, I had participated in NaNoWriMo proper, and wrote 71,664 words towards a brand new novel during those 30 days, without missing a single day. Since that time I have engaged in the perhaps more painful and difficult task of editing it into an actual, you know, readable piece of writing with good characters, a logical plot, suspense… the kind of things that are hit or miss during a marathon month of writing. In November I created some amazing gems and a lot of stinkers.

I’ve made amazing progress along the way, and the novel, while not complete, is significantly better than it was on December 1st. One thing that happened is that I had to cut a lot of great scenes with peripheral characters whose company I had grown to enjoy. Those characters told me that they’d like their own shot at a novel, so Camp NaNoWriMo will allow me to write the first novel’s sequel. That presents my first challenge.

But wait… how can I think of writing a sequel with the first novel still incomplete? With that, I encounter my second challenge. In the next 16 days, can I finish a rough edit of the first novel so that all of the plot points, climax and resolution are knocked out, so they don’t hang over my head?

To complicate matters even further, I have just agreed to participate in a 30 day blogging challenge, inspired by one of my colleagues at Automattic. So, for as long as I can manage it, I’m going to try to post here every day in April, almost certainly about my experiences with Camp NaNoWriMo.  I’ll tag all related posts ‘NaNoWriMo’ if you wish to follow my progress.

So in April, expect to hear a lot of ramblings about the highs and lows of writing a novel in a month. If you’re one of my blog followers, feel free to cheer me on (and provide whatever the writer’s equivalent is to a bottle of water for a marathon runner).

There may also be an occasional photo of my pets. After all, it’s not their fault I’m a crazy writer. 🙂