Do you know what Nanowrimo is short for? National Novel Writer’s Month, which is now international. You try to write a 50 thousands words of a brand new novel in one month, November. It sounds like a tremendous undertaking, but every year many people from all over the world complete it.

When you do Nano (Nanowrimo) you have to switch off the internal editor inside your head. You must write without editing. It doesn’t matter if what you write is no good, it forces you to get that word count up. It isn’t really that much it is 1776 words per day.

The first few times I tried Nano, I didn’t get it done. I got a few thousand even once up to 15 000 but never the 50 000. But now I have a few ideas of novels that I have started. Even if that is all you do, is get a novel idea. And 50 000 doesn’t have to be your top limit.

It feels so good when you accomplish that 50 000 word mark. You see it tick over on the bottom of your word document. To know you had a simple idea and it turned into a story. Last year I said to myself I can’t really do Nano, I have too many unfinished novels to work on. Though I got talking to someone and said if I did do Nano I would name my character Jet.

Now I had no idea what Jet’s name was, I knew it was his initials but that was it. So I used Google to find names starting with E, I could only think of a few. The first name that came up was “Eagle”. That name gave me the whole heritage and idea of who Jet was going to be.

I had an idea of how my two main characters would meet (I write romances). Apart from that I had no idea where is was going to be headed. More have come out, so it has turned into more of a mystery than I had expected.

Nano can be great, I made myself a word count goal for the first day last year. 5 000 words, the next day was over 4 000. It gave myself a bit of buffer which I think is helpful and I ended up winning Nano a day early.

Your days get busy and I made sure I had a few meals ready, that I could just take out of the freezer. It is also good to have support and hope that your family won’t mind if you neglect them and the house for just that one month.

I went to a Nano meeting in my area. That gave me close to 4 000 words on that day. There are support groups. I know this year there is a meeting about writing a novel in my area, but it’s on a day I can’t go.

This year I most likely won’t attempt it, but my goal this year is to finish one or two of my novels, one of my previous Nano attempts. There is still a few more days and things can change.

Consider Nano, get your character names and their features straight, the setting. Maybe write a brief outline. You can do all of this, just not start the writing of the first chapter until the 1st of November. The website has more information on it.

Good luck if that is what you want to do

Melanie Carter Winkler

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

When you write do you consider God? Is God part of what you write?  If so what part does He play, is He integral to your story?

I have done both non-fiction and fiction writing. I try to put a message of hope and love and God’s plan of salvation in everything I write. Though how I do it is different depending on what I am writing.

When I write non-fiction, which are mainly devotionals I obviously pick a scriptural reference. A verse that goes with what I am saying or have learnt. So when I am writing them I ask God to give me the message that needs to be said. To have it be received in the way it needs to be.

If is different when I write fiction. How much do I include God in my writing? Do I make my characters Christian or do have them struggling with the idea of following God? I generally write romances and I want them to be Christian and follow Christian values.

But you may ask where does God fit in? When I write I don’t like to be preachy which I know can turn people off. I might explain a few things, using the Bible or I may have my character struggle with something in the Bible. I hope that what I write shows others, the readers, things that they may not have thought of.

I like to think God gave me the talent and the gift to be able to write. He also has given me the love and message of His plan for our lives. I believe the plan for my life is to write, whether it be fiction or non-fiction.

I always ask God to bless my writing. If I bring out a Christian value let it be something that others may deal with. I think we all write pieces that may be slightly biographical. I know I have and through my characters learning things, so do I.

So I don’t mean just thinking about God in your writing. We need to ask God to be with us and guide us in our writing. It is only by His grace that we are here and doing what we love, writing.

I don’t always ask God to help me with my writing but I always remember Him as I use Him in my stories at some point.

Maybe the characters were brought up as Christian and have gone away. Maybe the person didn’t have Jesus fully living in their heart. Maybe the person has never heard the story of salvation. Maybe someone is dealing with how being a Christian meshes with their life.

If I can touch just one person’s life with my writing. If just one person finds a deeper understanding and relationship with God it will all be worth it.

Melanie Carter Winkler