Tomorrow is the first day of National Novel Writing Month, and I already know I’m going to fall behind. Stupid me did my usual ‘agree to do too many things at the same time’ this week, so now I think the first I’ll be able to start on my novel is November 2nd. This just means I have to do double the work that day, so here’s hoping I meet that goal! I don’t want to start off missing goals, that’s never a good sign.

My story idea is one I’ve had kicking around for some time. I’m a huge fan of urban fantasy novels, especially those where the main character is part of the paranormal realm they help to investigate. My love for this genre, honestly, started with the Anita Blake books I now love to hate-read, but it wasn’t until I devoured the entire Dresden Files series that I knew that this was what I wanted to write.

And even since reading the Dresden Files series (multiple times. And the audiobooks!), I have discovered even more authors whose series I love: Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series. Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus series. The list goes on. These are the types of books I most love to read, and so it would make sense that, for my first novel attempt, I try to write in the same genre.

I’ve spent the last several years of my life reading as many books as possible. Last year’s Goodreads Reading Challenge included a bunch of these books (so did this years, but mostly incidentally – reading the entire Malazan Book of the Fallen series is heavy, so I needed a few easy breaks between books). I’ve also spent the good part of the last 4 years or so plotting out this story idea. I’m still having difficulty thinking of a good climax for the novel, but I am still going to jump into writing and hope I can figure something out as I go.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything for fun, so I’m quite looking forward to giving NaNoWriMo a shot this year. I may not complete the entire novel, but it’ll at least force me to start working on one, and once I have the bones complete, I can always go back and enhance, right?

What are your tips for writing your first novel? Or just any NaNoWriMo tips in general? Any advice for a total novice novel writer?

You can follow along with my NaNoWriMo progress here.