Good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers!

Six years ago today (six?! holy crap...) I sat down to write the very first words of The Whitefire Crossing as an eager but nervous first-time NaNoWriMo participant. (That first line actually remains exactly the same as I first wrote it Nov 1 2007, oddly enough. Practically all the other words got rewritten before publication, but not the opening sentence.)  Now, six years later, I'm embarking on NaNoWriMo once more - this time hoping to close in on the end of the first draft of The Labyrinth of Flame, the final chapter in Dev and Kiran's story.

I've even signed up for NaNo officially.  (I didn't in 2007; my friends and I just aimed for 50K on our own).  This time I figure the camaraderie of the full NaNo experience could be fun - so if you're one of the dedicated souls trying to pump out 50K this month, you can find me there as ColoradoGirl.

As a published author, the first day of NaNo this time just feels like any other writing day.  I'd already upped my pace to 2,000 words a day over this last week of October, so if I can keep that pace up, I'll be in fine shape.  And 50K is likely to be less than a third of the novel, since I write long-ish books!  (The Tainted City was 176K as published.)  But that said, I can't help but be carried along on the excitement of everyone participating, both newbies and long-time veterans.  The real point of NaNo is to make your book a priority; to put aside distractions and all the criticism of your inner editor and let the story flow.  It's a wonderful experience, whatever your goals.  So good luck to everyone participating this year - may we all reach 50K and beyond!