And this is the month to do it. November is also known as National Novel Writing Month, and to accomplish that goal, many authors, old and new, young and weathered are accomplishing the task. There’s even a website devoted to it.

For veterans like me, it gives a permanent deadline and motivation to get that rough draft down on paper. While I have worked on and off on the sequel to BLUFF, title not to be revealed yet, I have not really gotten past the 14,000 word mark. I keep changing and editing–something that can be suicide for a novelist.

When I realized that NaNoWriMo was coming up, I jumped on the chance to sign up, knowing that it would give me something that I respond to well in the way of motivation: a deadline. The former journalist in me just can’t resist meeting a challenging deadline. And meeting it well.

Of course, now that it’s Day Five, I am cringing at that last sentence. I am only 700 words toward meeting the 50,000 word requirement, thanks to prior social plans that virtually ate up the weekend. And my usual sporadic sleeping patterns, which would have normally aided me in this writing endeavor by giving me hours of open time in the wee hours of the morning, also failed me. I’ve been sleeping through the night. Drat!

But today is a new day. And one of the beauties of NaNoWriMo is that you can always catch up. And that’s what I plan to do.

Rest assured, while you’re waiting to find out what happened to those characters you have grown to love and possibly hate, so am I.