National Novel Writing Month

November marks National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a fact I loathe. Not NaNoWriMo itself, which I think it great, but the fact it takes place in November. Typically, between my family and my in-laws, I celebrate three Thanksgivings (and all out of town!) which means I have about 1/2 the month to achieve the same end goal if I'm to participate successfully.

For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it requires you write 50k words in a month (which, to me, is really a novella but just go with it). It's a huge feat nevertheless. I'm also not a speed writer but tend to re-read passages I've written along the way and tweak where necessary. NaNoWriMo is not the time for those kinds of tricks. To hear some kinds of tactics you should consider visit here.

This year, I do have a couple of new novel ideas but I'm also trying to do an edit to a WIP I have--and one that, along with my blog, has been woefully ignored for the last couple of months due to crazy hours at my job (which consequently pays for my very nice new MacBook so I can't complain). So I'm dedicating the month of November, at least what parts of it aren't lost in transit and fattening up, to wrapping up my edits. Instead of a word count each day or week, I'll have a certain number of chapters that need to be edited.

In short, I'm turning my YA urban fantasy into a YA urban fantasy spy thriller. Given my husband works heavily in defense and getting his master's in military war strategies, I have an in-house researcher so the only hindrence is time. But that's the beauty of NaNoWriMo--everyone has to do their work and do it quickly.

So I'm committing to the cause, in my own special way at least. And to hold me accountable, at the end of each week I'm going to post how many chapters I've edited  and I encourage you to provide updates too if you're participating.

So what are your thoughts about NaNoWriMo: love it or hate it? Are you participating, and if you have in the past, what advice would you share?