November is upon us. Some focus on the bleakness of the season: the seemingly long drag through the cold and wet before Spring arrives. Others enjoy country walks, kicking through autumn leaves, or lean in to the excuse to hibernate: to stay home in the warm rather than brave the dark evenings, maybe cuddle up with a book and a mug of hot chocolate.
For writers November can mean a period of focused effort, as this is the traditional time for National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo). Stephen King recommended that writers commit to 1,000 words a day, every day of the year. Quite a challenge with today’s busy lives! But the concept of NaNoWriMO is to focus on daily writing for one month only, with an aim of producing a rough draft of your story by the end of November. It’s a great way to get the ideas out of your head and onto paper, albeit in a very rough unedited form.
I’ll be facilitating a group of writers at Sudbury Arts Centre to help them get the best part of a first draft of their novels written during November. And I’ll be focusing on my next psychological suspense alongside them – working title ‘The Next Move’. No plot spoilers, but those of you who’ve read my previous books may recognise the protagonist as she embarks on a new phase of her life…
Updates on progress next month!
Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash