Well, it’s almost that time again, that wild crazy month where I write 50,000 words in a month while still having a day job, being a dad and doing all of those other things that life throws at me.

It’s a wonderful, miserable, creative time.

I strongly urge anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel to go to nanowrimo.org and sign up.  Take thirty days and do everything you can. Write without worrying about punctuation or plot. Give it a try. You might surprise yourself.

My first attempt was in 2008, and it was a miserable failure. I think I got about 8,000-ish words done (the official number was used for a blog that word press is putting out – I just can’t remember right now). I was rather disappointed with myself. After all, I’ve been a freelance writer for years, and I’ve written 17,000 words in a weekend before. Nonetheless, the piece that I created was eventually completed and became Souls of the Everwood. The link takes you to the paperback copy. The great part of it all was that I failed at writing a novel in November 2008, but I stuck with it in the months that followed and still got a novel out of it.

In 2009, I decided to try nanowrimo again, and I was determined to prove something to myself. Suddenly, James Markson came to life, and he dictated the first Crimson Hawks novel, a swash and buckle fantasy adventure. It was a rough ride, but I finished. I won. It was a spectacular feeling, and I truly love In the Service of the King. I wanted to create a fun, light read, and I think I accomplished it. I really need to finish the second one.

For 2010, I wanted to redeem Krueger and the cast of Souls of the Everwood and prove that I could complete a Krueger novel. This was the novel that I finished at 11:45pm on November 30. I was SO far behind that last week that I still don’t know how I finished it. I had to work too. I finally had that novel published this year, a sequel to Souls of the Everwood, titled Balefire and Brimstone. I got to introduce a new character and explore Krueger’s soul a touch more. I have an outline for a third book tentatively titled The Fall of Ostburg. It’s going to be about all the dark things that Krueger left behind at the end of Souls of the Everwood.

I’m hopeful that my efforts in 2012 and 2013, Covenant and Son of Helios, Champion of Ra will get to be published novels of their own one day, but both need a lot of polish and lengthening before they are ready to go. I haven’t completely decided what I’m doing this year, but I’m leaning toward something superhero-ish at the moment. I’ve also thought about doing that new Krueger novel. I enjoy having black powder weapons in my fantasy world wielded by a crazed one-eyed ex-demon hunter/ranger. However, if anyone has any thoughts on what I should write, please feel free to make suggestions. I’ve got a few days.

Anyway, I have suffered happily through National Novel Writing Month since 2008. I haven’t always enjoyed it, and I’m sure my wife hasn’t always enjoyed it. However, it’s made me a better writer and taught me how to write much faster.  I’ve learned to write on spiral notebooks and napkins. I’ve used dropbox and emailed myself words, all to reach 50K in one month. My nanowrimo name is Vashar if you want to give it a try and track your progress along with me. Whether you finish 1,000 words or 50,000 words, you’ll be closer to completing a novel than you were before the month started. You owe it to yourself to give it a try.

All the best!

Harry