I’m concerned that this year I’m being a little bit louche about NaNoWriMo. 

(In case you are unsure, this means: Oblique, not straightforward.  Also, dubious, shifty, disreputable.)

Thing is, after 12 books in 12 months, I already know I can draft a novel in 30 days.  But that isn’t what I’m doing this November.  This month I am writing a factual account of the 12 books project, which is a different beast than a fictional first draft.  And although I’m writing some things from scratch, there’s also quite a lot of rewriting and adding supplementary information to existing work. 

Y’see, I can’t just do something totally from memory when I’ve got extensive notes in the form of this blog.  Thanks to WordPress I have copious reminders of what was going through my brain last year, and statistics about what people were most interested in reading about.  So it’s not so much 30 days and 30 nights of literary abandon as – well.  Editing.   Which is kind of the antithesis to NaNoWriMo.

It also means that at the moment, I am actually a couple of days ahead in terms of word count, whereas participants who are doing it all properly are starting to enter the territory of self-doubt / realising this was a terrible idea.

To those people I would say, it is not a terrible idea.  Drafting something this quickly is hard going in places, but it gives you a creative rush like no other, and finishing is a huge confidence boost.  You can do it, and you will do it, and I salute you. 

Then next November you can sit about editing and feeling like a little bit of a charlatan because really, your book is half written already.  That, my friends, is the circle of life. 

And I hope this removes any doubt as to whether I am being shifty or disreputable about my massive word count.