And so it begins

As you read this I am traveling the lonesome highway between Texas and Ohio in a minivan with The Professor and Kiddo #2. Hopefully, I am also logging some serious mileage toward my Camp Nanowrimo goal. Today is the day they open the page and all the crazy kids start writing like mad.

My last novel took me 16 months to write, so 30 days is going to be a significant improvement. I have a few things going for me that I think will help. Last time I started writing and then got pregnant, had a baby, put my house on the market and moved my family across the country. This time, it's just me and the open road.

Last time, I had no idea what I was doing. I got an idea for a book (probably a result of the pregnancy hormones I didn't know where coursing through my body) and I started writing. I'd never heard of a query letter, I didn't know adverbs were the devil, and I thought the more back story the better.

me, so clueless

At times, writing that book was just painful. When I finished, I realized the beginning completely stunk. I had to cut about 20K words and completely start from scratch. I'm pleased with what I ended up with, but it took forever to get there.

Things are different for this book. I have a completed beat sheet, rough character sketches, a very loose outline, and several scenes cooking in my head. I know going in what I need to write just for me and my knowledge and what actual goes into my word count. I will not waste time coming up with 60 different ways to write "she said". I will just type "she said".

Nano is going to be a drastic change in the way I wrote my last novel. But then, I am a drastically different writer than I was last time. Hopefully, I'm better.

On a housekeeping note, since I am on the road where internet service is...shall we call it spotty, I am not sure when my next post will be. Hopefully, I can find a connection on Monday. If not, good luck to all my fellow campers and I'll be back soon.