For the past four years, during the month of November, I have participated in NaNoWriMo. Or National Novel Writing Month if you prefer.  The goal of  the event is to write a 50,000 word novel in only 30 days.  And it is a real challenge.  But people from all walks of life do it every year.

By writing at least 1,667 words a day, you can achieve this astronomical amount of writing.  And if I did it, you can too!  Believe me.

Last year I wrote a book called Sister Spirit- A Modern Ghost Story.  It was about a group of friends who are haunted by the jealous spirit of a woman who killed her lover in the 1950s.  To my surprise, my friends and family liked it.  I was able to actually make a coherent story with a beginning,  middle and end.  And best of all, I proved to myself that I was capable of writing.

Previous to these attempts, I had only ever written reports.  They were mostly for college classes and did not total more than 10 pages.  As much as I loved reading, I just did not think I could ever write that much about a single subject.  But I proved to myself that I can do just that…TWICE!

Last night, I validated my work and received the title of ‘winner’ for the second year in a row!

I might have shed a tear or two when the word count validator on the NaNoWriMo site finished buzzing through my copied and pasted document of 106 pages.  When I condense it down to a 6×9 format for printing, the page total will be about doubled.  And that, my friends, is considered a novel.

This year’s story was about a young woman in colonial America who is kidnapped by pirates.  Though the course of a five year adventure, the main character befriends the captain of the ship, the only famous female pirate in this world- The Irish Piratess-and sets off on adventures of her own.

I enjoyed the exercise, but I think my real bread and butter is writing ghostly mysterious type novels.  But swashbuckling is a fun thing in indulge in any day.  😀

For me the best part of participating in NaNoWriMo is receiving a coupon from CreateSpace to print five free copies of your novel!  After winning last year, I used that coupon and it was the greatest feeling of my life to unbox five freshly printed copies of MY OWN BOOK!

So I know it’s a bit too late to jump in this year…like a lot too late.  But consider setting aside your obligations next November in favor of writing with reckless abandon.  You might just surprise yourself with what you can do.  I know I did…TWICE!