November is
National Novel Writing Month. It is often shortened to NaNoWriMo because writers are usually in a hurry
Recently, I did an email interview with Michael Crowl recently. He has completed NaNoWriMo three times and has published three books.
Mike started writing Undercurrent during National Novel Writing Month in 2014.
“I got to just over 58,114 words by the end of November,” he said. “The book was published at around 92,000.”
I immediately bought a copy of UNDERCURRENT and read it through, although I had done some proofreading in the early stages.
RISE OF THE WAVE, he wrote in 2015 during NaNoWriMo. By the end of November, he had 50,084 words. That book finished at 78,000.
RAGING TORRENT, he wrote during NaNo in 2020. That ended at 53,133 words by the end of the month. It currently sits at 150,104 words,
Mike is now doing the final editing on that book and also doing some work on the cover. He hopes to have it published by the holidays.
“I've had so many things going on, I haven't had much time to blog,” he wrote. “I am planning to blog on the process of designing and making the cover, and then another post on the book design (formatting the text for publishing). I'll get there! I'm trying to finish some wood projects in time for Christmas.”
Mike wrote a blog Feb. 12, 2021, titled “Second Wind: Re-engaging on my Work-in-Progress.”
He starts with information about NaNoWriMo. “During November it’s easier to remember what happened in my novel in the previous chapter because I had just written it the previous night. Simple, right?”
“A couple of years back, our local paper interviewed our writing group during November, and I commented that I don’t outline my book to the end, because even as the writer, I want to be surprised at how it ends.”
For more information about Mike’s process and results, check out his blog = mikecrowl.com.