As I’m sure you know, we’re coming up on November.  And as many in the writing and blogging community will know, that means National Novel Writers Month–NaNoWriMo in the shorthand, or NaNo if you want to make it really quick.

The goal of NaNo is to write a novel in a month–50,000 words, or about 1,600 a day.  People come together, in person or over the internet, and support each other in their goal.  It is, by all accounts, a fun way to connect with other writers, and to hopefully produce some writing–which everyone expects will require vast amounts of revision.  But the point isn’t so much to write a good novel–just to get something written, and you can always revise it later.

I’ve been hearing about NaNo for years, but I’ve never actually participated.  November never seemed like a good month for a vast amount of writing.  In school, November is just when everything’s gearing up with major papers and final exams.  Last November, I was busy starting a blog.  🙂

But I’ve decided that this is the year–I’m finally going to give NaNo a try.  I have a full-time job and plenty of social activities, not to mention a blog, but I know lots of people with crazier schedules than mine make an attempt on NaNo!

I already write most days, but I tend to fit in just a little time at the end of the day, and I’d like to write more.  I figure NaNo will force me to–and hopefully I can make some habits I can keep following after November.  I’m finishing up the first draft of the novel I’ve been working on for about a year and a half, so the timing is perfect to launch off into something else.

I’ve had an idea percolating for a while that I want to explore.  As I think regular readers all know very well 🙂 I love fairy tale retellings.  Lately, I’ve been drawn to “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”  After reading a lot of retellings, I re-read the original in Grimm’s (“The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces.”)  There was plenty there that had been in most of the retellings, but there was one line that suddenly jumped at me:

“Each Prince danced with the girl he loved.”

I found myself re-examining the entire story.  In every retelling I’ve been able to find, the Princes are evil demons, the Princesses are forced to go dancing, and the King is a well-meaning man who does his best to help his daughters.

But that’s not in Grimm.  In Grimm, the Princes never do anything evil, the Princesses seem perfectly willing (even eager) to go dancing, and the King is locking up his daughters and chopping off champions’ heads.

Which leads me to ask–what if the villain of the story is not who everyone has been making it out to be?  What if everyone’s motivations, and everyone’s desires, are entirely different than what we’ve come to expect them to be?

So that’s what I’ll spend November answering!

Obviously I plan to focus on novel writing for the month, which will mean less blog-writing of the usual kind.  I expect there to still be a few book reviews and a few other things like Favorites Friday posts–and if the novel-writing goes well, I’ll share excerpts!  But don’t be surprised if the usual posts are less frequent for a few weeks.  I still plan to post often though–so that I can let you know how the novel-writing goes, and keep myself accountable!

If you’re participating in NaNo too, I’d love to hear how it goes for you; you can find me over on the NaNo website.  My username is cherylmahoney.

I have another horror novel review for Halloween, and then the novel-writing starts next Tuesday–wish me luck!