Nanowrimo - More than just November for Me
Many of you who have been reading along with me for several years are aware that several years back, I decided I’d participate in National Novel Writing Month - Nanowrimo to the initiated. Since I was worried about finishing in time, I wrote a detailed outline, something I never did previous to that book. What I did in November of that year was to write “The Mote in Andrea’s Eye,” a sci-fi adventure tale that is sort of like the film Twister meeting the film Forever Young. It has hurricanes, pseudo-science, and The Bermuda Triangle.
I finished that novel, all 80,000 plus words of it, in 31 days, penning the final bit the day after Nanowrimo ended, but finishing the requisite 50,000 in November easily. I revised that novel in a couple of weeks, and by the first of the year it was sold. It came out in Hardcover and in Large Print Hardcover from Thompson / Gale Five Star books, and it did pretty well.
Since that time, I’ve been a constant supporter and participant in Nanowrimo. My novel Vintage Soul, also sold to Five Star (as well as to Bad Moon Books in limited signed HC) was written the following year. The novel I just finished revising, and that I will be completing soon, “Gideon’s Curse,” was written during Nanowrimo the year before last, and last November I used the month to complete the novel “The Orffyreus Wheel.”
I also agreed to something very cool. My success at Nano led to my being asked to help with their fund raising, and I agreed. The deal was, any contributor to their cause that paid in $1000 or more could get the first 30 pages and an outline looked at by one of several successful nano novelists. I was one such, and apparently I was popular enough that two separate people donated the money with the explicit request that it be me who read and reviewed their work. That’s a very nice thing to hear…and I’m happy to be doing it.
I’ve just heard from the second of these, and I’m pleased to find she is also a published novelist. Her book is about as far from what I have written as one could possibly travel, but I expect to enjoy it quite a lot anyway. It’s a way of giving back - because despite the fact the work was all mine, without the impetus of finishing during November, I might not have those books finished, or sold.
A last note - those of you who have participated in Nanowrimo in the past will be able (soon) to pre-order Vintage Soul at a discount - and those of you who COMPLETED the challenge get an even better discount. How cool is that? I’ll wait for details to be hammered out and let the Nano folks e-mail the news, but just wanted to let you all know it was on the way.
The second novelist I’ll be looking at work for is: Lori Culwell - author of Hollywood Car Was - and I hope I’ll live up to the challenge and be useful and insightful. For those interested, Lori’s blog is at: FUNNY STRANGE.
–DNW
