As I mentioned on Halloween, I participated in NaNoWriMo last month for the first time ever. If you have not heard about it before, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to start writing on November 1 and end the month with 50,000 words of a new novel.

I did it! I wrote every single day, even Thanksgiving, and ended the month was a little over 50,00 words of the first draft of a novel. It took me another eight days to finish the draft but hallelujah, I did it. I finished the Shitty First Draft of a novel that I am planning to publish in 2021.

The novel is about a mom who grew up in the circus and did not go to school until college. Now her daughter is starting preschool, and she feels insecure and overwhelmed that she does not know what preschool is like. She feels like a total imposter when the Director asks her to be room mom…

I’m calling it a Mom Com. It was really fun to write and was exactly the sort of project that I needed in November 2020. I suspect it’s the sort of project I will need for 2021. This is not the time for me to be writing some sob story with intense drama and personal conflict!

I am currently rereading my Shitty First Draft and creating an outline for the Somewhat Less Shitty Second Draft. I am also currently picking at Julian’s gingerbread house. Why is crusty frosting so delicious? Why did I just eat a stale chocolate chip that Julian says is reindeer poop??

I have no idea how long it will take me to revise the novel. (Oh shit, I just knocked over one of the sugar reindeers on Julian’s gingerbread tableau.) I am just going to keep revising until I don’t know what to do, and then I will send the book to an editor. Woot woot!

Excuse me, I have to move Julian’s gingerbread house before I accidentally eat the entire roof.