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Aryn Ravenoak walked the walls of Alphaeon for the last time under a full moon.

This was the opening line for the novel I started writing on November 5, 2007 for National Novel Writing Month. I started another story on the first of the month, but 6800 words into it, I discovered that it wasn’t worth telling. So on day five, I started from scratch.

For those of you who aren’t aware, National Novel Writing Month is a yearly challenge for writers all over the globe to write 50,000 words of manuscript in 30 days. That amounts to about 1,667 words per day. Participants are encouraged to pound out a manuscript without editing, to leave their “inner editors” behind for one month while they focus on just finishing a first draft.

The good news is that I finished 50,000 words; so, technically, I won NaNoWriMo. But the bad news is that I haven’t finished the manuscript . . . nor do I intend to.

Although I ended up falling in love with my characters, I don’t feel that the story itself is worth telling without some major revisions that I don’t have the energy to make. It would be easier to start from scratch.

My current plan, now that I’ve gained a much greater appreciation for leaving my inner editor in the dust, is to finish up a manuscript that I’ve been working on for a couple of years. I’m already 54,800 words into the manuscript, and the story’s been begging to be told.

I have no choice. I have to tell it.

National Novel Writing Month begins tomorrow, and I still have no idea what I’m going to write about! But it’s all good. I’m not too worried about it. After all, one of my favorite ways to write is just to start with a character and a situation and go from there. There’s something very liberating about letting the story take its own course, not knowing what’s lurking around the corner.Anyways, starting bright and early tomorrow morning, my fingers will be typing away, trying to get at least 1,667 words per day . . . and all of this on top of a full time job and a freelance web design career!

Wish me luck!

Thursday is the first day of November, and you know what that means! It’s almost time for National Novel Writing Month!

I’m excited and a little nervous about the whole shindig: excited for obvious reasons, but nervous because I still have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write about, so I might have to resort to my backup strategy.

My preferred strategy for NaNoWriMo is to have a plan, and possibly an outline for my book before November 1 arrives, but it’s starting to look like that’s not going to happen. So my backup strategy is just to start with a character in a ridiculous situation and go from there, writing without a plan. This strategy can definitely be fun. It’s exciting to have no idea what lies around the next corner. But it also makes me a little nervous.

Either way, I’m really excited about November, even though I won’t have much of a social life for 30 days. Anyways, if you’re doing NaNoWriMo too, drop me a line and keep in touch!

As some of you may know, I’m currently working the equivalent of two jobs. By day, I’m a full time Flash trainer for LearnFlash.com, and by night I’m a freelance web designer. So, as you can imagine, I tend to stay pretty busy, especially now that my freelance business is starting to pick up. In fact, I’m busier now than I’ve been at any other point in my life.

So there couldn’t be any worse time for me to stack something else on top of my plate, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do in the month of November. As many wannabe writers know, November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In November, psychotic writers all over the globe commit to writing 50,000 pages in only 30 days. (Why couldn’t they have picked a month with 31 days??) That amounts to over 1600 words PER DAY!

NaNoWriMo encourages writers everywhere to stop making excuses and start writing! It also encourages you to ignore your “inner critic” for 30 days and avoid doing any editing at all cost! After all, editing is what draft #2 is for! Will NaNoWriMo result in a literary masterpiece? Probably not! But it will get you started in the right direction.

So if you need a boost, check out nanowrimo.com and join the masses of writers who have decided to stop making excuses. The website has a great community forums section, where you can keep up with other writers who are taking the challenge. The forums are a great source of motivation for everyone crazy enough to put themselves through the ordeal!

So go sign up today and look me up! My user name is craigsoup.

Desperate for a good story idea that just won’t come to you? I stumbled on an “idea generator” gadget recently that might be just what you’re looking for. Just click on the “random” button, and it throws together 3 completely unrelated words for you to do with as you will. It may not result in any best-selling novels, but I assure you, it’ll be fun! Check it out!