Here I am still wondering if I’ve lost my mind, but anyway I’m gearing up to see how close I come to writing Fifty Thousand words by the end of November.  For those of you who haven’t heard November is National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo for short. 

I know where my story is supposed to go. My main characters are in place and I have a general idea of how they get to where they’re going.  It’s almost time to  get to the starting post and start filling in the journey.

Wish me luck with this.  I’ll be rooting for others on my writing site who are as crazy as I am to take on this monster challenge.

More anon…

It’s amazing what fragile egos we writers possess.  I’ve been fortunate to have the first article I ever wrote published.  I sold several after that and I’ve had some short stories published.  But I still have a shy, cringing place within me that hesitates to say ‘I’m a writer’.  Yet I know I am.   

I’m a purist, so somewhere along my journey I started to believe that I couldn’t classify myself as a writer if I hadn’t been paid.  I’ve got past that.  Whether someone is paid or not, if he/she loves what he/she does and have some skill at it, then that person is a writer. 

I’ve yet to work up the audacity to come out in public – by that I mean in real time, not the net – and say ‘Hey world! Lookee here!  I’m a writer!’  This non-progressive attitude is what kept me from going to the Calabash Literary Festival earlier this year.  I thought I’d feel like a hypocrite to call myself a writer among so many illustrious people. 

Having missed that great gathering of literary minds for no good reason, I think it’s time I got over myself.  If I’m alive and kicking next year, it’s not something I’ve going to miss.   You can be sure I’ll be smart enough to take along samples of my work too…just in case.

So, how d’you plan to put aside your reluctance and blow your own trumpet?

Having jumped on the NaNo bandwagon, I’m preparing myself to burst out of the starting gate come November 1.

I have my project bible all bound and waiting for my daily input.  I’ve done my character charts and even made notes as to how the first and second scenes in the story will play out.  

Strangely, I haven’t named my characters yet.  I know what they look like, what they drive, who they’re married to, but no names yet.  Still, I have no doubt they’ll come to me when the time is right.  I think I’m constrained because the novel will be loosely based on persons I know and I wouldn’t want to get anybody in hot water. J

I’m having a ball with outlining.  I hope it will make writing a breeze come November when there will be no time to do anything but write.   If all goes well, I’ll make my 50,000 word count with ease.

If you’re taking up the Nano challenge, what have you done so far to ensure you succeed?

I’ve not been doing much writing based on the editing load I have, but I can never resist a challenge.  Sooo, off I went to the NaNo site, logged in and my new novel idea is on the front burner of my mind.

Last November passed in a fog.  Now that I know what to expect, I wonder if I’ll be better prepared or whether I’m setting myself up for thirty days that I won’t be able to remember much about in 2009. 

I’m such a sucker for punishment.

Every so often, I marvel at the change in my writing.  And every time I look at what I’ve written over the years, I automatically start to edit.  Just this year, my writing style has improved again.  The people on the writing network where I’m a member (http://thenextbigwriter.com) have helped tremendously.

Some complain that the site is no good and that it has a bunch of timewasters who don’t have a clue what they’re about.  I say you get out of it what you put in.  I would have been published with or without the site, but it was there that I learned much of what I know about writing.  The membership has grown and changed, but there are always people who give excellent critiques.  I’ve benefitted from such writers and owe a debt of gratitude to one particular person.  In the past few months, he’s gone through two novels of mine with a fine tooth comb.

After a while, I took stock of his one major complaint about my writing style - too much clutter and a tendency to take a circuitous route through sentences.  I wonder why he why he would have thought that?  ;^)  Tight, declarative sentences are not my natural way of writing.  Nor are plain English words.  As weird as it sounds, I tend to use what my reviewer calls ‘latinate’ words.  I think that’s the legacy of schooling.  My writing coach pointed that out too.  He told me to forget some of what I learned in school.  His advice was, never use a ten dollar word when a five dollar one will do.’  Thanks to him, I got a foot in the door and have had my stories published in the literary pages of the Sunday Observer. 

And the advantages haven’t stopped there.  By making a conscious effort to remember to stick with short, direct sentences, each first draft of my chapters is now better.  Yes, my new critic remarked on that.  I’ve told him he can pat himself on the back for it.  

For most of us, the journey to publication is a long one, but there are people along the way who make the trip worthwhile.  Ever thought what you’d do without the people who give you hell over what you write? 

I don’t know what I’d do without my critics.