This year, I approach National Novel Writing Month as a published author. My previous NaNo years I was a writer trying to get novels written and learning how to do them well. Last week saw the publication of my novel At the End of the World which started life as a NaNo project.
This year I can use the term author and feel like it belongs attached to my name. I don’t know why I associated author published, but I’ve always (probably unfairly) made that distinction. A writer was anyone who wrote, an author was a writer who published. On an intellectual level, I disagree with that distinction. Anyone who writes is a writer and an author.
Regardless, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year with another oddball project. I’m writing three novelettes: The Village of Moored Boats, The Woodworker, and The Book of Revealed Truths and Hidden Intentions. I know I can produce 50,000 words of stories. I don’t do NaNo for the challenge any longer. I do it for focus; to find that flow state, and get things written a little faster. What I learn each November is that I can write hard and well in any month if I focus. And now, as a published and nearly full-time writer, I need to produce quantity and quality. Two goals that are only reachable through practice.
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Kevin J. Fellows 