So This NaNo Thing...

In 2004, I managed to make it to 50,000 words, the goal of National Novel Writing Month. Last year, I was all set to go, but got mired in confusion about 13,000 words into my story, and just gave up. (Don't even ask me about 2002 & 2003!)

This year, I have pledged to not only make it to the 50,000 words, but to actually FINISH the story. So I've been planning.

Sure, I know the tagline for NaNo is "No Plot? No Problem!" but because I've had no plan of where my story is going, I mostly just rambled on. When I made the word count goal in 2004, my story was only probably about half-finished. I haven't touched it since. :)

A great place to read some helpful articles on planning out a novel is Holly Lisle's website. She's a professionally published author, and her articles get down to the nuts and bolts of how to get a draft written. I have many "how to write a novel" books, but she breaks it down into easy, readable steps. After reading some of the articles on her site and then going back to the books, some of the stuff in the books makes more sense.

Join up with NaNo. I promise it can be fun.