I’ve decided that while the article-writing side to my freelance business is flourishing it is to the detriment of the fiction side. I know I’ve got to make a living at the end of the day so I’m not complaining that the non-fiction work is going so well (it’s nice to be in demand!). However, I feel I have to do something to redress the balance and get back to writing the very kind of pieces that brought me into writing as a career in the first place.

To that end, I have decided to sign up to NaNoWriMo and use this coming November to get a book written. Technically, it should be a novel (that being what the ‘No’ bit in the title is for and all that) but I’m going to cheat a little. The book will be part auto-biography, part novel, part collection of short stories and I will post each day’s work in its rough, unfinished-and-got-to-be-edited-to-death-before-you-judge-it state.

The aim will be to inspire others to take up the famous NaNoWriMo  challenge and get on with penning their own 50,000 words. It will be the third time I’ve done this (though in the past I’ve taken part in the sister act, JulNoWriMo, rather than the BIG one) and I can honestly say I’m so grateful for it. The competition gives you the impetus to get on and write that book. For the amateur, it gives a reason to write the book they say is lurking in each of us. For the jobbing professional, like me, it gives you a reason to commit a bit of your day to writing for the sheer pleasure of it rather than to put food on the table. All to often we put the creative writing aside because the paid gigs come first.

I will be sharing the daily posts with my sister blog, Kenthinksaloud, in some way. I haven’t quite decided how that will work but I’ll make sure readers of both blogs are kept up-to-date with the work.

Hopefully, what you’ll see is a book coming together day by day. Then, in December, I’ll get on with editing, re-writing and re-imagining the whole work and (with a lorra, lorra luck) I might just have a book out by Christmas to sell to you good folks with the best of the results. So do make comments as the series begins on Saturday (with the introduction) and let me know what you think. Each post will be on and around 2,000 words so nothing but a short coffee break to read – unless I get very inspired (it does happen sometimes). I’ll try not to force a 10,000 word thesis on you however (would that I could).

If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo  yourself – good luck with your 50,000 and well done. See you on Saturday!