Over the last few weeks, the question about whether to participate in NaNoWriMo has been asked over and over again. Each time I've seen it, I've mentally told myself "not this year"Yet, here I am. Two days ago I registered my project for NaNoWriMo. I'm officially in it, two years after my last attempt. I can hardly believe I'm actually going to do it again. It's also hard to believe that my first NaNoWriMo win was in 2006. Yikes, that's fourteen years ago, fourteen years since my first NaNoWriMo win (a story called The Valley of the Dead).

Anyway, so here I am. What changed from a week ago?

Honestly, I'm not altogether sure. About a week or so ago, I stumbled over some older story ideas I've had sitting on the shelf for a while, stories I've been wanting to write. As I read through them, I remembered why I wrote them down, why I loved the ideas so much that I felt they needed to be preserved for some point in the future. Reading these story ideas energized me, gave me renewed motivation and a desire to sit down and write. So, that's what I'm going to do.

My story for NaNoWriMo this year will be The Departure Protocol, the same story I began for the Wattys but quickly had to put on the shelf before I got too far into it. I figured that since I have a pretty good outline, I might as well use it.

Since I created my entry on the official NaNoWriMo site, I've gone back to the story and I've realized it still needs a bit of work. Amazing how that works, isn't it? When I stopped my writing in July, I felt I had a pretty solid plot but now, I'm sure it can be better and that it needs to be better. In fact, I've already identified several areas where the plot can be strengthened without taking away from what I've already done. So, I'm excited.

My next steps are as follows: write out the arc for the main characters again, taking into account some of the changes I have in mind. Although the story remains roughly the same, some of the motivations for the characters have changed. This all needs to be documented while it's still fresh in my head.

Before long, it'll be time to write. 

What about during NaNoWriMo? Will I post the story as I write it? Will I post updates?

I haven't decided yet. I may start posting but I also might hold off until I can make sure the story is complete. We'll see. At the bare minimum, I'll be posting regular updates on progress. You'll also be able to see how I'm actually doing over on the Online Writing Log were I'll be participating in the NaNoWriMo Challenge. If you're also participating in NaNoWriMo, you can join me there.

That's it for now. This coming week will be intense as I work through the fixes to the story I need to have in place. It will require rewriting the chapters I've already written but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for a better story.

If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, hit me up on the NaNoWriMo site: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/techieinak