November Approaches

I know we are still in the beginning of October what with it being the 7th and all, but before we know it November will be here. It's one of my favorite times of year: National Novel Writing Month. I've already started preparing 4 novels using the NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge held on Writing.Com but of those 4, only plan to write 1 novel. But it's nice to have outlines and character sketches for other novels prepared ahead of time in case I decide to take March or something to write another novel first draft.

Though I find some of the usual lessons a bit more difficult for one of the novels because this year I'm doing the rough draft of book 2 in a series. Right now book 1 is with a couple of readers and in 2014 I will be sending query letters to agents, so now feels like a good time to give the second book a first draft. I know some say not to write book 2 until book 1 is sold, but I figure it won't matter too much if things get changed because this is a rough draft. Book 1 took a major rewrite and an edit that resembled a rewrite to make it to where it is, so it's not unreasonable to expect a rewrite in the future for book 2, but it's easier to go from rough draft to a presentable product than from a blank page.

So, I can't wait for NaNoWriMo once again. Though this year, with work and the novel I'm working on, I think I will have a more reasonable word count. My hope is to get 75,000 words done, so have the whole first draft done. That would be a great feat considering book 1 first draft was 23,000 words. It's not at 65,000 after rewriting and editing (which somehow the edit made it longer...). If I can make book 2 be long enough in the first draft, that would be great. I don't need 165,000 words written in November this year and I'm okay with that.

I should go work on prep. Today I'm working on background stories to the plot.


Are you excited for NaNoWriMo?
How do you prepare?