‘WriMo Out; Blog Hop In

I’ve been dithering back and forth on this decision, but I think it’s time to pick one, stick with it, and make it official: for the first time since 2006, I’ll be bowing out of NaNoWriMo this year.

It’s a tough decision, because I always look forward to ‘WriMo. It’s my second favorite thing about November (the first being my mom’s pumpkin roll). I’ve already got an outline ready, and up until recently I had been planning to spend November turning it into a rough draft.

But then all of that job business happened, and I’m still scrambling to catch up from the six weeks of having no time to edit Dominion. I actually think I’m on track to finish this round of edits by the end of October, but I’m going to want to let it sit for a week or two and then give it one more read-through before unleashing it on the public. And there is also a lot of promotional work to be done between now and when I finally release it in December.

Also, I know from plenty of past experience that no matter how good my intentions of picking back up and working on other projects after I’m finished with NaNoWriMo, it won’t happen. Come December I’d be too worn out from chasing that 50,000 word count, and it would be closer to February before I found the energy to start writing and editing again. I think it’s best this time around if I just stick with the momentum I’ve currently got going and keep moving forward at a pace that will get writing done consistently without wearing me out and requiring long breaks.

What’s also helping my decision is the fact that my local ‘WriMo group’s weekend write-ins are getting moved this year from my neighborhood library to one clear across town–actually, in a neighboring town–which is farther than I want to have to drive. There’ll be some weeknight write-ins a bit closer to home, but week nights aren’t very convenient for me, either. So I’m taking the new write-in schedule as confirmation that I’m not meant to do ‘WriMo this year. Which, I’m a little sad about, because I love our local ‘WriMo group, and I’ll miss hanging out with them this year. But I’m well past the point where I need ‘WriMo to help me get books written. At any rate, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines, and good luck and many happy returns to all of this years’ brave word warriors.

I will, however, be participating in Jeremy Bates’ Halloween Blog Hop in the run up to Halloween this year. This is my first blog hop, so that’s a little exciting. If you’d like to join me, head over to Jeremy’s blog for details and to sign up, and then come back here during the final days of October to tell us all about your favorite scary or paranormal book.