IWSG: NaNoWriMo 2014

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and time for members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group to share their writerly insecurities. The group was started by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and those interested in joining in can visit www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com for more information.

NaNoWriMo is here again, the annual writing challenge where participants attempt to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days. Last year, I took part in the challenge, but fell (WAY) short of the 50,000-word goal. This was due to work and life in general getting in the way. So this year, I've decided to take a pass on the challenge. Well, sorta...

I am presently taking a leaf from Tony Laplume's book; I am channeling the spirit of NaNoWriMo by writing along with other participants, but doing so from the sidelines, and without following any of the rules. I don't have any particular word count goal in mind. My only goal is to write as many words as I comfortably can, and to bring my book that much closer to completion.

This approach proved successful for Tony last year, so I am hoping to replicate that success somewhat, without aiming to do so, if that makes any sense. By my estimate, I would say I have put down a few thousand words, which is already more words than I'd written in the past couple of months put together.

Is there anyone else out there doing NaNo from the sidelines?