National Novel Writing Month

Somehow or other, it is now DAY TWELVE of National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo happens each November, when thousands of people (200,000 participated last year) sign up to write 50,000 between November 1st and November 30th. Yup, 50,000 words in one month. That's around 1,667 words a day, or close to 12,000 words a week.

Today is day twelve, which means everyone participating should hit 20,000 words today.

So what am I writing, and why did I take a month off from revising my WIP to do this?

My NaNo project is a prequel to my WIP, Water Magic. It's set in the same universe—a world parallel to ours called Abernwyth, a world humans with magical powers (faeries) migrated to thousands of years ago, after a split in evolution created magic and non-magic humans. The prequel is called Dyllan and Abigail, and it covers events that took place twenty years before my protagonist in Water Magic stumbles into Abernwyth and ends up facing an evil magician called the Stone Mage.

I decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this year for a couple of reasons: firstly because I thought I could use a break from my WIP after working on it for two years, and secondly because I thought working on a prequel could only be helpful, in that it helps me to gain a deeper understanding of the history of the world I've built, and the lives of many of the characters.

So far (aside from causing me to neglect my laundry) my first NaNo has been going well. I tend to fall behind on days I work, but get caught up fairly easily on the weekends, when on a good day I can get out around 4,000 words. I've never been a particularly fast writer, so this whole experience has helped me to see that maybe I can actually write more than I thought I could.

I've currently got 17,000 words finished, so I need another 3,000 today to be caught up.

So, lovely readers, are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo this year, or have you participated in previous years? How did you/do you find the experience—liberating, stressful, or something else entirely?