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| Image Courtesy of National Novel Writing Month |
NANOWRIMO is the acronym for National Novel Writing Month which takes place every year during the month of November. From their website:
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing.
On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.Almost 400,000 writers participated last year.
Today's tip is short, and sounds more simple than it is:
Write the book you want to read.
You'll be spending many hours with the characters, setting, and plot of this book - more hours than you imagine because once the story comes alive in your brain and heart, it will always live there. If you like romance novels, write a romance novel. If you like horror, write horror. If you write mysteries, write a mystery. If you're not sure what genre you prefer, think of your favorite books and that should help. If you're like me, you may like several genres - if that's the case, think about setting or characters, and let one of those lead you to the genre you should write first.
Some "experts" may tell you to write for the market - write what will sell. You can choose to listen to them - and be miserable about halfway through - or you can write the book you want to read and enjoy yourself, even when the writing gets hard. (It will.)
Come back tomorrow for our next post in this fiction series. Topics we'll be discussing in future posts include characters, theme, setting, tension, dialogue, plot and more.
The Fiction Series:
The Road to NANOWRIMO
Determine Your Setting
Other articles of interest:
Marketing Series: Build Your Team
Marketing Series: Define Your Audience
Marketing Series: Think Outside the Box
Marketing Series: Build Your Platform
Marketing Series: You've Got Questions
Recent articles:
Two Keys to Finding Your Author Voice
I Want to Write a Book - Where Do I Start?
From the Edit Desk: Before Sending that Manuscript to Editor or Publisher
From the Edit Desk: Sense of Place
From the Edit Desk: What's the Takeaway?
Do You Dream?
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