A post from the Author Enablers
With more than 25 years of experience, Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Sam Barry have the inside scoop on writing and publishing. Together, they are the authors of Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now. Email them your questions (along with your name and hometown) about writing and publishing, and don’t miss their column on BookPage.com.
As many of you may know, November is National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as NaNoWriMo. It’s a pretty simple concept, though it takes discipline to execute. On November 1, begin writing your novel. The goal is to complete the first draft of a 50,000-word novel by midnight November 30th.
Is this silly? Yes. Does it get thousands upon thousands of people’s creative juices flowing? Yes. Is that cool? We think so. USA Today journalist Joyce Lamb has written several novels during NaNoWriMo. Her True Shot is being published this December by Berkley Books. But you don’t have to get published to succeed. Spending a month concentrating on writing fiction is good for writing chops and prevents cavities. Our hats off to Chris Baty, the mastermind behind NaNoWriMo. We wish we’d thought of it.



I did NaNoWriMo two years ago and working away again this year. I love how excited I get as I take my characters in directions I never thought possible. A throughline and a sketchy outline helps but it might too get thrown out the window writing at least 1800 words a day. To everyone out there, great success!