This is the boat ramp at Ferguson's Landing on Lake Marion during the severe drought of 2007/2008. Beyond the trees in the background are the remains of the town of Ferguson, normally buried under the lake waters, but exposed for the first time in 50 years during the drought. This location is important to my story.

The Four Holes.  That’s the working title of the novel I am writing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Yep, you heard me right.

I am participating in a creative writing project in which I am to write a short novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. This contest is not so much about the quality of the writing as it is about quantity. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Sounds silly, but in reality, it forces the writer to write fast and furiously, worry little about editing and ultimately get something down on paper that may very well be worthy of reworking later.

NaNoWriMo started in 1991 with 21 participants. Each year since then the numbers have grown and in 2008 NaNoWriMo had 120,000 participants with about 20,000 writers reaching the 50,000 word requirement.  

Since this event takes place every year, many people do research and create outlines well in advance of the Nov. 1 start date and although, they are not allowed to start the actual writing until November 1, they are well on their way to plot and character development.

I first heard about NaNoWriMo about a month ago, but didn’t give it any thought as something that I wanted to do. But, I saw a few people tweeting about it on twitter on Sunday morning (Nov. 1) and decided to check it out. After I went to NaNoWriMo’s website, I was hooked. So, I signed up and the rest is history.

I’ve had this vague idea for a novel stirring around in my head for about two years. My protagonist is a brilliantly smart, funny, attractive, fiftyish, newspaper editor of the local small town paper. I haven’t decided on her name yet; it must really fit her personality so I am calling her “Cindy,” for now.  Her dog, Sam, quite the detective and her protector, accompanies her on many of her adventures. I’m not quite ready to give you the synopsis of the story quite yet, but I can tell you that it will of the mystery/suspense genre.

This is a fairly labor intensive project and I suspect that my house will be staying rather messy this month (Thank goodness I cleaned on Sunday before starting this project.) I will keep up with my blogging activities here on Cindy’s Country Corner, so please check back often and be forgiving when you find errors this month.

And pray that Brian survives.

You can read more about the project on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month.

P.S. You can keep up with my writing progress on the sidebar!