This year will be my sixth time participating in NaNoWriMo. Out of the past four times I participated, I completed the challenge four times. One of those manuscripts went on to be published as a novel I wrote under my pen name Grayson Bell.

While I participated in 2019, I couldn’t complete my manuscript that year because I was scheduled for surgery in the middle of the month. My recovery proved to be a larger speed bump for my writing than I had anticipated and only wrote 38,340 words. Still a valiant effort if I do say so myself.

For this year, I am going the rebel route. Traditionally, NaNoWriMo is intended to be a challenge to complete 50,000 words towards a new novel within the month of November. However, this year I don’t have a new novel idea that I want to begin writing. I do have an older manuscript that I’ve been keeping on the back burner for a couple of years that’s in desperate need of an ending.

Since it’s been so long since I’ve done anything with this manuscript, I have decided to retype it in its entirety during NaNoWriMo. This exercise should knock loose the cobwebs and reacquaint me with the world and its characters. Along the way I’ll do some necessary editing and I hope that by the time I reach where I left off, I’ll be able to give the story an ending.

I want this novel, The Artifacts of Truth, to be able to stand on its own. However, I have plans for it to be part of a trilogy. Whether or not the entire trilogy will be written remains to be seen, so I need to make sure this story ends in a way that’s satisfactory for a solo novel, while still being able to fit within a trilogy.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Are you going the traditional route, or will you be a rebel like I am? Let me know in the comments!