NaNoWriMo is upon us!

It's almost that time of year again - National Novel Writing Month! Or NaNoWriMo, for those that are familiar with it. Halloween night won't be just for the kids; at 12:01 am on 11/01, keyboards across the nation will start clicking with passion as new and returning NaNoWriMo participants begin their quest for 50,000 words in the month of November.

If you didn't know, the Enemy Calling series started last November, when I completed NaNo for the first time. I almost did it the year before (2004), but alas, 65+ hours a week at the Home Depot was more than enough to quash any fantasies of churning out quick lit (NOT chick lit!).

This year I have some actual goals for the 'contest', as opposed to last year when I merely hoped to be able to reach 50k without typing endless drivel. A few of the things I'm willing to share:

1. LESS CAFFEINE - by my count, I averaged 6 Diet Cokes and a pot of coffee per day. A bit much, don't you think?

2. An idea of what I'm writing about - in the true spirit of NaNo I began writing with almost nothing to base a story on. It evolved as I wrote, and I spent a ton of time rewriting sections over the course of the year to make things match contextually and to add consistency. My goal this year is to actually follow some of the story outlines that were developed in Descent, and perhaps add one or two new ones in the next book, Deception.

3. Less editing during November - this killed me last year, and I almost didn't make it to 50k. I was too worried about grammatical errors and spelling that I found myself spending 20% of my time going back and rereading instead of typing new sections (like any good NaNo writer should do).

I can't give out any more right now, as some of them would be spoilers for storylines in Descent. However, I will say this - I anticipate spending a great deal more of time on character development and scene visuals rather than the action sequences that were the foundation of my writing last November. I'm hoping this doesn't slow me down too much. If so, I guess it's back to writing the 'fun' scenes!

For those of you reading this, I would encourage you to at least check out the NaNo site at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ . By the way, you can read updated excerpts of my writing (and all other NaNo authors) on the site throughout the month of November. My only warning to you is that I didn't write in typical order last year, so my personal excerpts may not make much sense when read day after day. If you're still interested in checking it out, my author ID is wheezul05. You can search for it by clicking on the 'Authors' link at the top of the NaNo homepage, and then searching by author name with my ID. It will bring up a link to my profile and excerpt page.

Next posting I'll update everyone on how it's going . Justin Pummill - welcome to NaNo!

Later....