Nanowrimo Starts 1st Draft

Signed up for NaNoWriMo today. 

I wrote two drafts with this crazy method before.

My theory being- type the words and get it done.

They ask for 50000 words but that’s not a novel – a draft should be 120000+ to slash and erase down to 90000.

My target is 90000

Right now my last book, The Eco Terrorist is in submission and I’ll give it the month.

Was completing an audio version of two prior novels, but the recording is slow and it seems the best my vocals can do is two chapters a sitting. I want it to be live without much edit polishing to sound the same as when I do an actual reading. Those projects are going on a shelf.

I work full time at a demanding job, and need to support my family all by myself. This is a risky proposition to put 1600 hours into a first draft of a story I’m not so sure about. The novel is about suicide or surviving near death by choice by someone I love dearly. Going to be written in first person and will surely be dark.

I don’t believe the lady at the register of Chic fil a is reading my books (you know the sweet one who asks you if you will be fine dining with “us?”) Why do I find that smugness of sweet so offensive?

 asked me recently again why someone with such a cheerful outward appearance has a penchant for thrillers and dark topics. IF you can come up with a light hearted come back please let me know.

With this I tell you I won’t be as quick on line and probably all my fun on Pinterest will be put on hold. I still have the giant house to sell, so craft projects are only a messy daydream to be enjoyed by pinning ideas.  

Please please leave me a comment send me a paper letter as I’m going to be up at 5:15 and working for 3 hours then closing mortgages all day and back home at 7:00 to get three more hours in for 30 days. I forget about Match.com, those videos for my mortgage banking job and painting daughter’s room by myself- Until December
Update tonight 3509 words today and outline 500 and story board started
I pushed and got my ACX audible  version of The Lucky Boy finished this morning
I won't have time to promote it and do Nano

Novels written by C G

Mapping the Novel for November

The Road Ahead, Caroline Gerardo copyright October 2011

Embarking upon an adventure, my team is ready, the cupboards and garage refrigerator are full who else is doing Nanowritmo? I have my plans, my note cards of research, the composition book full, the white story board – well it is waiting for all the information to unfold. I would label myself a very organized “pantser” as I do not know the ending until I am done. I allow the story to direct me in the first draft.


Here is my plan: 65000 words by November 24th. I will have not a full first draft but a rough without an ending, or perhaps three ending ideas. That is over three thousand words a day, a pace I have managed daily but I include blog posts as warm ups, poetry and shorts in my count. I will only work on the novel. I have a couple titles in my head, and this too is subject to shift.

My children have agreed to take on the feeding of the pets (in Laguna Niguel we have two dogs, two turtles, an elderly flop eared bunny and yes the hummingbird feeders need attention). They agreed to split up a couple of my chores so I can get up at five and start my quiet hours of writing at the kitchen table. It is in the morning I get the most productive writing done. I don’t have the luxury of a silent space to work in. Yes I have a room of my own, (several) but being a single mom with no relief I can’t lock myself away. My team has come upon the settlement that we don’t watch television, mom writes with her gnarly baseball hat and they read or complete homework. We play games and are intensely competitive to work for goals. Nannowritmo is just as serious as when my son and I had the month long chin up challenge. I build up to eleven, and I felt really strong about it until I suffered tendonitis, but that’s another story.

So who else is doing Nano and what challenges do you find ahead? What will you do if the laptop fails or there is a power outage for days? Let us share our triumphs and cheer each other on to the finish. How will you balance your home life, your day job and will you remember to pay the cell phone bill? I will be limiting my online reading, less blogging, but I will chat about progress and check on you by twitter.

@ cgbarbeau is my handle



Caroline Gerardo © copyright 2011