Just Write

My BuNoWriMo avie, created by the great
Joris Ammerlaan Design

The month of June has always been hugely busy.  For starters, it’s the traumatic changeover from school skating schedule to summer schedule, and for a couple of weeks I’ve got students showing up for skating lessons that have been rescheduled (or worse, I’m the one who’s got the schedule wrong *facepalm*).  There are long weekends at the beach, Father’s Day, graduations to attend, and always—ALWAYS—there’s at least one wedding or baby shower thrown into the mix.

But more than anything, there’s one thing I think of when I think of June.  BuNoWriMo.

BuNoWriMo was started by a group of talented writers who keep a blog called Burrowers, Books and Balderdash (or The Burrowers).  As rabid Harry Potter fans, they met online and found common ground in their love of both the HP series, and in writing.  This is how I met several of them long before The Burrow was officially founded (I’m not ashamed to let my HP-geek flag fly), so when they organized a month-long 50,000-word novel-writing sprint, I was thrilled to hop onboard.

What’s great about BuNoWriMo is that their rules are on the flexible side (yay for flexibility!).  They have the same belief that I do—if you’re writing, it’s allllllll good.  For instance, one year I wanted to write a novella (it was NOBODY’S ANGEL) that had to be around 35K words, and not the required 55K. 

No problem.  Just write. 

Other people have had to get epic amounts of editing done in this span of time. 

Understood.  Just write. 

This year, I’ve been so busy with slogging through the developmental edits for DANGEROUS ANGEL that I could barely get myself together. When I finally sent those edits off, I realized I’m in the middle of the first draft of the next Bitterthorn novel, SECRETS SO DEEP.  After I’m done with SSD, I’ve got another story lined up and ready to go, yet another Bitterthorn novel that’s going to need a ton of research before I launch into it. Normally, this would be an issue for a WriMo.

But it’s not a problem for BuNoWriMo.  I just have to write.  Every day, all I have to do is write.

That’s why I love BuNoWriMo so much.  It’s run by a bunch of people who aren’t all about following the exact rules or regulations that other WriMo events follow.  BuNoWriMo isn’t about rules and regulations.  It’s about putting your ass in your seat and making words every single day for one month, and at the end you have a shiny new book to show for it.  It’s painful, it’s maddening, and it’s totally doable.

Just write.

Would you like to join us for BuNoWriMo?  We gather here on FB!