Books and NaNoWriMo

In October, I was a super overachiever and read 14 books:

Cell by Stephen King (reread)
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige
Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski (reread)
The Essential Enneagram by David Daniels
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland
Envy by Anna Godbersen
Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Personal Injuries by Scott Turow

Why so many? Partly because some of these books were shorter than my usual fare (No Place Like Oz, for example, is a novella). But maybe mostly because I was on a mission to cram in all the words this month.

Next month (tomorrow!) is the month of spitting out all the words. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins in roughly 14 hours!

I will still be reading during November, because, really, I can’t not read. But I will probably read fewer than my average of ten books a month.

At this moment, I have three characters sketched in pages of words, an unknown serial killer lurking in the shadows, and the barest skeleton of a plot. This doesn’t sound like nearly enough to sit down and start writing a novel tomorrow.

But it is more than I have ever had before beginning to write. I have never had a character sketch written. I have never had more of the plot than the inciting incident, first plot point, and maybe the midpoint.

I am still terrified that I am woefully under-prepared.

November’s project: an adult thriller. I have never written an adult novel (though some of my short bits have wandered in that territory). I have never written a thriller (again, some of my short bits have wandered there).

This is going to be an adventure.

P.S. My favorite book this month was probably Shiver. I still desperately want to be Maggie Stiefvater when I grow up. Sigh.

P.P.S. Like last year, I plan to post weekly updates regarding my NaNo progress (probably on Mondays).