NaNoWriMo: The Final Weekend!

All month I've been writing a book for eleven-year-olds...and I've got just forty-eight hours to finish it!

This weekend, you can follow my progress as I attempt to win the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) competition - writing 50,000 words in just 30 days - by reaching the fifty thousand target by the end of Sunday night. Can I do it? Visit Baldworm's Twitter site to follow my progress as I edge towards the finishing line...

NaNoWriMo Day 1: Beginning the Novel

I'm taking part in National Novel Writing Month, writing a 50,000 word novel in just thirty days. That means I need to write at least 1,663 words per day. Gulp! My story, The Crimes of Count Grassi, is about a girl, Rebecca, who lives with her strange Uncle, the poet Count Grassi. Only Rebecca knows the Count's secret: when night falls, Count Grassi is a thief!

I began writing my NaNoWriMo novel today (Sunday). I 'set the scene' in chapter 1, describing my character Count Grassi's study. I also set up the first crime.

It was fairly easy to reach my word count today, so I tried to 'go big' and rack up a lot of words, so if it get harder later in the month I'll have already bitten off a good chunk of my 50,000 word target. Today's word count:

I've Joined the National Novel Writing Month!

Gulp! I've just committed to writing a full-length novel - 50,000 words or more - by midnight on 30th November! National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo - is an international competition, challenging people to write a complete novel -50,000 words of more - in just thirty days. Over 87,000 people around the world have signed up to writing 1,500 words (that's about six sides of A4) every single day for the next thirty days.

Why have I signed up? Two reasons:

1. I've been tinkering on and off for a couple of years with an idea for a story about a girl thief - and the time has come to get it down on paper, once and for all.

2. The one thing I really dislike about the 11+ exams is the thought that it teaches pupils that 'you write stories so you can pass a test'. By taking part in NaNoWriMo, I hope to show all the girls at FSG that writing fiction is something we can do for the sheer fun of it, rather than to impress the Grumpy Examiner.

Wish me luck! I'll be updating you on the blog as I aim for the magic 50,000 word target!