I know the rules: write 50k words in a month.
Once upon a time, as a NaNo newbie, it was all about hitting that minimum magic number to guarantee a NaNo win. This year word count is irrelevant. I'm harnessing the energy of NaNo participants to complete the second half of The Anonymous Blog of Mrs. Jones. If there's time left, I'll jump into Training Wheels.
Finishing a novel stymies the true power of NaNo -- to let go and see what happens -- because voice is established, and all additions must work within a well-defined story. It's harder to insert moments via NaNo abandon. Harder but not impossible. Just because I'm abusing NaNo to finish a novel doesn't mean the point is different.
National Novel Writing Month is about focusing on just writing. As author Allison Merritt says, "November: It's Quantity, Quality Comes Later." That's the point -- stop editing and get working. For some, this is the one month in a year to truly write. For others, we write all the time.
Make NaNo work for you.
