What Glenn Writes

November was a blessing and a curse.

If you followed this blog at What Glenn Writes , then you know I participated in the NaNoWriMo contest, or the National Novel Writers Month contest. This is a serious writing sprint from 0 words to 50,000 words in thirty days. I did it in 27 days.

Go me.

November was a blessing to get me writing again. November was cursed in that all I did was write in my free time to keep up with the pace and schedule. I work during the day, so writing was an evening and weekend event… sometimes it was a late evening or early morning hours event.

There is a reason why the NaNoWriMo winners badge has a cup of coffee on it.

I also tried an experiment with the contest. I offered an opportunity for my readers, family, and friends to get involved in the fun of writing. I think one of the best elements of writing is coming up with the character names, their specific traits, what they drive, their back-story, and even what they order on a pizza if they have one. Using my Twitter account, I posted opportunities for followers to make suggestions.

For example, one of my actual postings on 11/02/08 was, “Need name for convenience store clerk in the opening scene for the book. She works the night shift, tired, but helps our hero. Any ideas?” On 11/05/08, I posted, “Lead character still eating brkfst: Any idea on what he’s eating? A trucker talks w/him - need name for trucker. Need truck stop name, too.” Both of these postings resulted in suggestions from followers that were used in the book.

There were many suggestions and much encouragement, and quite a few followers want me to continue the process. The challenge comes where not too many followers liked the Twitter interaction, had trouble with Twitter, or preferred email. Altogether, I needed to develop another way to handle the interaction on a broader base, so I renovated my website and included a submission form.

For those Twitterfied followers, I will continue to post opportunities on Twitter. For those who prefer blog reading, I will post the same opportunities to my blog, “What Glenn Writes” .

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So, this story will continue. Yes, I finished the contest, but 50,000 words do not make the novel complete. I am guessing the total count will be closer to 75,000 words. Would you like to add your words to the mix?

See you there!

Glenn Sasscer
www.glennsasscer.com