Guest Blogger Missy Jane - Prepping for NaNoWriMo 2010

Most of you current and aspiring authors out there may already know what NaNoWriMo is, but for those of you who don’t here’s a rundown. November is National Novel Writing Month, so in celebration an organization was created to encourage people to tap into their inner Steinbeck and write. The point is to complete a 50,000 word manuscript within the 30 days of November. Can it be done? Yes. Have I ever finished…er, no. I officially registered on the site (www.nanowrimo.org) in 2005 but have yet to hit the 50K mark by the end of the month. This is the year, I can feel it! Never mind that I’ve said that the past two years as well.

Now, what should I do to make this the year I succeed? Well to be completely honest, my biggest hang-up to writing is my other favorite hobby, reading. I LOVE to read just as much as you probably do and can finish a mass market paperback in a day. The plan for November is to NOT READ ANYTHING! That means I will not buy, look at, think about or consider any new books between October 29 and December 1. You, dear readers, are my witnesses to this oath. If you see any Tweets of me browsing books send a virtual slap my way, please.

My second hang-up is online activity. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and too many Yahoo groups to list. Plus I have a plethora of my own blogs. In support of my NaNo oath, I implore anyone who sees me dallying online in November to yell at me. Or better yet, ask about my word count for the day to guilt me back on track. I’ll either get back to work or burst into tears, depending on my chocolate intake for the day.

So, now that I’ve set some ground rules what the heck am I going to write? Therein lies another issue (I’ve got tons of them). At the moment I have over fifty works in progress…no, really. I’m very good at starting stories but then I get distracted, usually by another story idea, and don’t finish. I think for NaNo I’m going to cheat ever so slightly and work on one I’ve already begun. One with not much of a word count yet and a paranormal romance theme should do nicely. I just think if I tried to start something new right now my head could very well explode, and my desk is messy enough.

However, I have a couple to choose from in that category. For anyone who has read my first book, They Call Me Death, I have a few more already started in that world. Kotori’s story is going strong, Lance’s and Emily’s story is actually completed and there are a host of other characters wanting to tell their view of things. I might have to visit that world again soon. Aside from that, there is the untouched reservoir of vampire ideas running amuck in my mind. A gargoyle or two and a brotherhood of arc angels have also been invading my imagination. I guess we’ll just have to see who yells the loudest for me to decide on whose story to finish first. Or maybe I’ll do something completely different and write a general fiction or literary fiction piece with normal humans and no romance or sex…nah.

Ms. Missy Jane is the alter ego of a Texas mother of four who has been married to the same wonderful man for thirteen years. About five years ago Missy finished reading a book by Mercedes Lackey and thought "Now, what if..." and a monster was created. Missy now spends most of her time lost in worlds of her own making, alternately loving and hating such creatures as vampires, shape-shifters and gargoyles (to name a few). When not writing, she spends her time reading, taking photos of her beautiful daughters and training her husband to believe she's always right. Excerpts from Missy's work can be found at www.msmissyjane.com.