Many things have happened that got in the way of blogging, but the gist is: Facebook, a minor medical issue that got complicated (not mine and mostly okay now), and developmental editing of my novel. Reading. And now NaNo.

I am told I should explain about NaNo. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is November. It is online, motivational (for me), free, as private or public as you want it to be, and I’ve done it before a few times. Each morning this month, I write on my laptop—the laptop I am using to write this long-overdue post—and then I post my progress on the NaNoWriMo website.

Gary waits quietly in the other room.

The way to “win” is to write a novel in 30 days. That means you write about 1667 words each day to get the 50k by the end of the month. There’s a website, and you can track your progress and it’s completely free, but I like numbers and I like checking in and keeping a record of my progress, so I always contribute. And every day of November I write and record my progress on the website. No one checks on you. Your self-reported progress is up to you.

Fifty thousand words might technically be a novel, but in the real world, novels are usually longer, 75-80k words or 100k if it’s a fantasy. Novels can be much longer (Wallace’s Infinite Jest, which I have not and will never read, is over a half million words), but usually aren’t. YA (young adult) novels can be shorter, but usually aren’t. I’ve done NaNo five times (or maybe nine times) and I aim for 75k words each time. I’ve also written short stories during another month, April’s “Camp NaNo” when I can set my own goal and “win” with 8k or 30k or whatever.

You are allowed to use the NaNo website in any way that’s useful. I like setting a goal and then passing it. NaNo will track how many words I’ve logged each day (over 3,812 words today), when I will get to that 50k-goal (14 November), and reward me with “badges” when I hit goals such as posting seven days in a row or posting twice in a day. There’s a certificate I can download if/when I say I have 50k words.

My goal this month is to revise an old 75k novel, and maybe a novella that’s been waiting around for my attention. I wrote out a synopsis of the novel and changed the plot. So now I want to write the novel in my synopsis. So far, as of early on Day 3, I have 11k words of that novel revised, an unplanned new story begun (in 2nd person and that has to change), but that novella is still waiting.

In the mean time, I am reading Virginia’s Apple by Judith Barrington, which is that rare and precious thing: a memoir that reveals the world you didn’t know. My first response on Goodreads was “Wow.”