Nanowrimo Mania! with Diane Bator

My newest novel, Drop Dead Cowboy, was written during Nanowrimo 2019. If you’re not familiar with the challenge, the goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November, which works out to 1,667 words per day.

Since many authors find that to be far too many words to deal with, they will set smaller goals for themselves. Personally, I find writing about 1,667 words per day is a great challenge and have “won” the contest twice now. What does winning mean? That you've met YOUR goal! Of course, the program will only recognize the BIG goal: 50,000 words in 30 days.

Do you have to write a complete novel? 

No. Focus on writing to your word count for now. You can finish the book and edit later.

Do you have to write a novel?

You can write poetry, non-fiction, flash fiction, whatever you want to write. 

The biggest goal is to WRITE!

What kind of person puts that much pressure on themselves? Are you crazy?

Partly, yes. LOL! It's not so much pressure if you're working on something fun and new.

This year I fully intended to use the month to add a second book to one of my series.

Then I beta read a fantasy novel for a friend of mine and...suddenly, I not only had a whole herd of new characters, I had also fully outlined a fantasy novel. Apparently, I'm supposed to have fun with this one and create something totally out of my norm.

How do you prepare for something so overwhelming?

Actually, I'm one of those silly people who find this fun. This is my third year participating and all three times I've created something totally different than what I normally write. Each time I've managed to fit it into my daily life. It just takes a little extra determination and scheduling, paricularly if you have children, pets, or a significant other in the hosue. Or a day job.

Do people actually write readable novels?

I've manage to so far!

Drop Dead Cowboy was last year's project. The one I did before that is still on my shelf, but I'm working it into a new series of fantasy-type novels. It fits in well with a novel I'm writing with a friend of mine.

As for this year's book, it remains to be seen. So far it looks like a Young Adult fantasy/paranormal. Should be interesting!

Do you have to train to do 50,000 words in a month?

I hadn't thought about that. My training was simply writing a novel and working with prompts in my writing group.

How do I keep motivated?

There are a lot of great groups in your area. Simply search the "Community," reach out to other writers on social media, or even to friends. Last year I kept motivated because I had a good friend who sent me her daily word count and I had to keep up! This year, there are more of us. We have a great circle of friends who will poke and prod and make sure we're writing!

While writing is a solitary process, we all need a good support group, especially during times when every Write-In and gathering is now online.

Do I write on paper or my computer?

I use both. I write on paper then transcribe to my computer depending on where and when I'm writing. This year it may be mostly on my computer which makes it much easier to keep track of your word count.

Do you think you're up for the challenge? To find out more, simply head over to https://nanowrimo.org/.  It's not to late to join in the fun!

Happy Writing!

Diane 

To check out my books: https://www.bookswelove.com/bator-diane/