NaNoWriMo – Yes or No?

NaNoWriMo has officially started, and I signed up just under the wire to begin on time.

I’ve taken the national writing challenge for the last two years, and completed it both times.  Both efforts spawned the nucleus of what became (imho) really good books.  The Art of Love won a couple of writing awards, and the second, called The Depth of Beauty, will be released in January. I think it’s my best work yet.

So you’d think I’d jump at the chance to do NaNoWriMo again. Uh, not really.

The problem wasn’t, “Oh geeze, what am I going to write about?” If only.  No, the problem was, “Out of all the ideas swirling in my head, which one will I be able to focus on?”

Concepts, ideas, plot lines, premises—all are constantly rolling around my brain, colliding with thoughts about which project might help my marketing efforts the most.  Currently I write in two genres – historical romance (the books I mentioned above) and contemporary romantic suspense (Sinner’s Grove and The Lair).  Each of those tracks are begging for a third.  I already know the main characters and overall story for each; logically I should go with #3 for either one.

But there are other possibilities, many of which I must admit I’d put on my “half-baked” idea list. It was fate that I should recently come across a guest post by Larry Brooks  on Jane Friedman’s website, and it’s definitely worth a read. He talks about turning “so-so” ideas into truly viable concepts.

Still, I couldn’t decide. This is how bad it got: I get migraines, and one of the triggers is not enough sleep.  So of course I got a doozy of a headache a couple weeks ago because I was up most of the night thinking, not only about the plot of my current WIP, but all the OTHER ideas I want to tackle.  Add to that the usual “Which book should I discount over the holidays?” “Should I discount any book over the holidays?” “Do people even read over the holidays?” Not to mention “Do I have enough beds for when my son brings his band to perform here in November?” “Did I buy enough Halloween candy?”  “Should I get the dog a haircut even though the weather’s turning cold?” Even “What am I going to serve for Christmas dinner?”—Christmas dinner, for God’s sake!  You get the picture. I was in bad shape, thinking, “no way should I add NaNoWriMo on top of all that.”

I told a dear friend about my troubles, and being a fellow migraine sufferer, she shared with me her latest remedy: she drinks a glass of espresso every night before she goes to bed (caffeine is good for dilating blood vessels, apparently). I know, you’re thinking, “What? Why on earth drink coffee when you’re trying to sleep?”  Strangely, I happen to be one of those people who gets sleepy after drinking coffee.  Go figure.

I went to Macy’s and found an espresso maker on sale for just thirty-five bucks. I then went over to my friend’s house for dinner and said, “Okay, my machine looks pretty complicated so I want to see how you make yours.”  She smirked at me (in a nice way) and said, “Follow me.” We went to her kitchen where she approached a very formidable looking machine, pulled an espresso cup out of the cupboard, put it on the little platform and pushed a button.  Less than thirty seconds later, with a satisfying “shhhhhing” sound, my espresso was ready to drink.  “Oh,” I said.  Hers was not a thirty-five dollar machine.

And that night I woke up worried about how on earth I was going to figure out how to use the machine I’d bought!

Thus my mindset, not three days ago was, “You shouldn’t sign up this year because you’ll just fret about it and worry that you didn’t make the word count.  You’ll feel disappointed in yourself and who needs that?”

And the devil (or angel, depending on your POV) on my shoulder said, “Yeah, but NaNoWriMo will force you to write no matter what.  Who cares if it isn’t the most logical project you should be working on?  Who cares if what you write never sees the light of a publishing day? You will have written.”

So I thought long and hard about each of the nine (count ‘em, nine) projects I’ve given a WIP name to.  I asked myself, “Which one are you most excited about today? Which one will keep you pounding away just to get the story out of your head and onto the paper?”

And one jumped right out, as if volunteering for duty from a lineup of recruits.

Was it the third book in either of my current lines? Nope.  Those, I decided, need a bit more noodling and more intensive pre-planning. Was it a short story that I can use to market my longer work? No, that one is good and it will keep (besides, it’s much shorter than Nano’s 50,000 word requirement).

In the end, I decided to write the first book in a brand new mystery series – one I’ve been thinking of for quite a long time. The setting will tie into my current series location, Sinner’s Grove, but will spin off in the most fantastical directions (if my imagination has its way, at least).   Its working title is “Whippoorwill: A Fillian’s Portal Mystery Book 1.”

Probably not the most logical use of my time, but when it comes to creativity, logic doesn’t always win out, right?

I am (dare I use the word?)  joyous about starting this project.  It’ll be challenging, and I know I’ll bog down and think it’s a piece of crap at some point, but I’ll push through and maybe, like I have in past years, maybe I’ll come up with something worth sharing.

So NaNoWriMo, after much soul-searching and sleepless nights, the answer is, once again, YES.  Now if only I could figure out that damn espresso machine…

How about you?  Did you have second thoughts about taking the challenge this year?  What did you decide?  I’d love to hear from you.