My very first time participating in the National November Writing Month challenge, was so much fun!  I was able to complete the 50,000+ word requirement in 22 days… very satisfying… and, as with all the other participating writers who met the challenge, I was awarded the NaNoWriMo Writing Challenge Winner Certificate.

Not only do I intend to participate in future challenges, I realize I can produce a flash draft of a novel in a relatively short amount of time… a month even.  My NaNo effort this time was to create a draft as a sequel to Unwitting Alliances, published September 2014.  The working title is Justified Betrayal but it’s not finished.  I will likely double the word count before my editor gets her hands on it!

To create a flash-draft on a tight timeline is exhilarating!  It proves you can do something when you put your mind to it.  It provides an opportunity to produce a skeleton of a story.  Within that skeleton you can begin to create interesting elements and characters quickly without worrying about a lot of details for now.  It provokes a type of mental stimulation that stirs up those creative juices.  Sometimes, during this challenge, I couldn’t write fast enough as ideas flowed easily and abundantly.  At other times I’d just write stuff down to keep the story going and maintain an adequate pace to ensure I’d reach my goal.

With excitement I submitted my 51,395 word draft for validation and received the WINNER! certificate for 2014.  The beauty of this challenge is simple… you don’t need to wait for November to do it again and I won’t.  I now have two drafts.  The first one is a draft I wrote last May 2014, Relentless Obsession, as a sequel to Desperate Rescue.  I challenged myself to test the feasibility of cranking out 50,000 in 30 days.  In just about three weeks time I’d done it… just like this time.  It is so doable!

Do you love to write?  Want to get a book out there?  If you didn’t know about the NaNoWriMo challenge before, you do now.  But don’t wait until next November!  Make a personal challenge today… right this very minute.  Pick a month… any month and write a 50,000 word book draft.  Stick to it!  Test the adventure!   Besides, you’ll be better prepared for the National November Writing Month 2015 challenge… I know you can do this!  So write on!