Coming up is the great celebration of writing, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Time for me to clear a writing space on the cluttered catch all table in my kitchen that I use during NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo started 17 years ago as an effort to encourage writing. Every November all are challenged to write a novel of 50,000 words or more. There is a web-site where you can track your progress and local activities to support you in your efforts. You don’t get any great monetary prizes, but you do get the satisfaction that comes from completing a draft of a novel.

I heard about NaNoWriMo three years ago while on a fall retreat at my brother’s cottage. I was intrigued by the prospect. Before this most of my writing had been spread out over weeks and months whenever I found spare moments.

I had been laid off from my position so it seemed like the perfect time to try. I came home from the retreat with a vague idea for a novel about courageous women picking themselves up after being knocked down by life. This idea became Dancing on a High Wire. The next year I wrote a sequel to this book, Still Dancing and last year I wrote the third book in the series, A Slow Waltz.

This year I plan to work on a different series, picking up on my 2015 summer project and writing a sequel to that yet unpublished work. I don’t know how it will work this year. Last year I struggled to get into my process, but managed to pull it off. This year, I don’t know . . . Still it’s fun to try.

There’s more than one way to participate in NaNoWriMo. While the primary focus is to write 50,000 words towards a novel, many use this time to work on editing already written manuscripts, to work on non-fiction, or any other variation. The main idea is to focus on writing in some shape or form. You may not get to the winner circle which requires 50,000 new words, but as long as you’ve done something towards your writing goal, you are a winner.

It is a celebration of writing!

Have you ever considered writing a novel? Maybe this will be your year to do it! I hope you will join me and share your progress with me. We can encourage each other. Just go to my website, www.patriciamrobertson.com, check out my blog, or email me at patricia@patriciamrobertson.com and let me know how it is going. We can be NaNo buddies!

Published by Patricia Robertson