How my blog saved my nano…

It seems incredible to think that November is just around the corner, only five weeks or so to go until NaNoWriMo 2015. I’m really looking forward to it but feel unprepared as I usually do in the month before it starts. This time, however, I have a reliable template for my project, and it’s all thanks to a challenge I completed here in July and August. 

I wrote Freedom as a flash fiction series in an attempt to complete the thirty day blog challenge. It worked. My confidence in finishing a different kind of marathon than those to which I’m accustomed grew. As I wrote the series, it became something I wanted to expand because there so much more storytelling beyond the bounds of flash fiction.

Once I decided to turn it into a novel,  I realized that I have a full outline of my November project, a first for me! I typically enter the month with some idea of a plot. I plan a little but end up pantsing about eighty percent of the way. It’s undoubtedly the reason I struggle to complete some of my novels… a feeling of openendedness that is overwhelming and never settles to a conclusion. In the case of Freedom, the end is the part of which I’m most sure. It’s where a twist occurs. Those of you who read it will know what I mean! 

So, even though the weeks until November are growing short, I’m excited because I unwittingly prepared for it a couple of months ago. Here’s to a finished first draft by the end of NaNoWriMo!