November is national novel writing month – hence the nanowrimo title. This is the drive to get up off your ass and put some words down on paper. In years past, I’d participate and basically work on two at the same time, cause I was an ass like that. I never had a problem putting words down on paper. Don’t get me wrong, not all of them were good. Hell, I wrote Pool of Crimson three times before I got it right. That’s a lot of words.

This time around, I’ve got my current work in progress logged in there. Maybe this will be the drive to make me finish this. My books and my writing have taken a back seat to everything else in my life, especially my daughter. And, honestly, that’s how it should be but I need this in my life to make me feel whole. This book and Violet Abyss have been hard. Hard getting the ideas on paper. Hard to get through the plot points. Hard to make it to THE END.

There are a few reasons for this. First, I write some pretty sick shit. There’s a lot of graphic violence, sex, the mood and atmosphere are dark, and I write about metaphysical mumbo jumbo. Some of this takes a lot of research. Some of this just requires me to be in the right head space to be able to visualize and put on paper how having your guts ripped out would look, feel, smell, and taste. I can’t really do that with my toddler screaming at me to read sesame street. I used to be able to wallow in that kind of mindset for hours on end. I got a lot done when I did that.

If you go to any of these writing conferences, workshops and etc., they tell you to write everyday even if it’s for 15 minutes or an hour. That doesn’t work work me! It takes me that long to get into the swing of what I’m doing and in the darkest places of my story.

So, here’s the importance of Nanowrimo. This requires you to log a word count each day of the month. And for those of you that know me, I’m SUPER competitive, even with myself. So, maybe I can pull this out and finish this book by the end of the month. That leaves me December to edit and fix it. Cause, it will need fixed. My first drafts are shit but I can edit like a fiend. So, there’s that.

And, my editor, doesn’t actual give me deadlines because I’m an A type personality and I haven’t been late before. She might need to give me deadlines.

So, I’m hoping that Nanowrimo will help me get my ass in gear and finish this damned book. Otherwise, this could set me back a year and nobody wants that.