A NANO Success Story
By Mary Eason
Most writers have heard of NANO – The National Novel Writing Month. Some have probably even participated a few times. But for those unfamiliar with the concept, NANO is a yearly challenge that takes place each November and runs through the entire month.
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
If you’ve ever participated in one of these challenges, you know it can be very daunting, but
if you stick with it, you’ll have the beginnings of a novel that can be polished with any luck into a published novel. Trust me it can happen, because that’s what I did with my first NANO challenge and my The Wild Rose Press release, Free Falling.
Most writers have heard of NANO – The National Novel Writing Month. Some have probably even participated a few times. But for those unfamiliar with the concept, NANO is a yearly challenge that takes place each November and runs through the entire month.
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
If you’ve ever participated in one of these challenges, you know it can be very daunting, but
if you stick with it, you’ll have the beginnings of a novel that can be polished with any luck into a published novel. Trust me it can happen, because that’s what I did with my first NANO challenge and my The Wild Rose Press release, Free Falling. Free Falling is a romantic suspense spy novel that I found exigent long after I completed NANO. Bringing Agent Rainie McClain’s story to life and showing the heartbreak and fear she faces every day on the front lines in the War on Terror was something that I found extremely rewarding. I was 
proud of the final version of Free Falling.
If I had to do it all over again would I do the NANO challenge once more? You bet. I will be at it this year and if fact, I’m happy to say my last year’s NANO, Root Of All Evil, will be published October 15th through Cerridwen Press.
proud of the final version of Free Falling.If I had to do it all over again would I do the NANO challenge once more? You bet. I will be at it this year and if fact, I’m happy to say my last year’s NANO, Root Of All Evil, will be published October 15th through Cerridwen Press.
You can visit Mary at http://www.maryeason.com and at her blog http://maryeason.blogspot.com
Labels: free falling, Mary Eason, Nano
posted by Mo H @ 6:37 AM
7 Comments:
Mary,
Thanks so much for blogging with the posse today. It's great to hear about successes with NaNO. You've inspired me to give it a whirl, and finish my rough draft way ahead of schedule.
How cool that you've made it work for you, Mary! I also like that you use it as a springboard. I've thought about trying it, but the winter months are my busiest at work. Instead, I'm trying the 100-day club, 100 words a day for 100 days. So far, I've only managed to follow through sporadically, but maybe if I had a shorter time frame it would be more manageable. Thanks for the nudge. :-)
Hi Mary! I haven't tried NANO but I'm going to give it a try now! Congratulations on your two releases. That's great that NANO worked so well for you.
Thanks for coming by today!
Hi Mary,
Since this is the second blog I've seen today on this topic - and I was toying with a story idea earlier today - I think I'm going to jump on and give it a try too.
Judy, I've been doing that 100 words a day group religiously for the past two years and the words really add up. Since January, I've done a minimum of 100 words every day (except one day I completely forgot)so that makes 271 of 272 days and generally much more than 100/day.
Thanks, MaryC! I was thinking of heading to bed and realized I hadn't done my 100 words after reading your post. So, off I go. :-)
I'l be Nanoing again for the third year. I makeup my own rules depending on what I need to get done, and this year I'll be finishing a first draft of a half-finished book, not starting a new one. So technically I always fail because I don't follow the rules. Oh well. I probably won't throw the 50,000 words away.
This will be my 4th year to Nano. My first year it was an exercise in abandon. I'd spent the whole year revising and revising and revising and it was just fun to write something new. I will revise it eventually--it had good bones. The second year I wrote a paranormal which is mostly revised but pretty short. Last year I plotted a romantic suspense, but got an idea for a historical 4 days before Halloween. That book is under consideration at Harlequin.
This year...maybe a straight contemporary.
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