In November, I completed a decade of participation in National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known at NaNo. In my first attempt, in 2003, I wrote my first novel, Polar Bear on the Loose. I finished the first draft while deployed to Bahrain in the summer of 2004.

Here’s a brief summary of my subsequent NaNo efforts:

2004: Twilight. A secret computer network defense team defends against a cyberterrorist.

2005: Threads and Ties. An unplanned pregnancy breaks up a high school sweetheart couple with the girl leaving their daughter with the boy to raise. After twenty years, can they pick up where they left off?

2006: 30 Days to Regularity. This was a non-fiction effort.

2007: Hot Coffee. A hipster attempts to revitalize her grandparent’s 60’s activism.

2008: Parallels. Trying an alternate reality story.

2009: Something’s Fishy. My first attempt at a category romance.

2010: Fooling Mother Nature. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

2011: Granite Hill. An entitled son of an influential family and his buddies impact their small town.

2012: Reunion. Six high school friends who have lost touch reunite at their 35th high school reunion.

2013: Flash for 100, Please. The plan was to do 100 flash fiction stories. I may have gotten two. It wound up being a potpourri of writing.

NaNo has been great for generating first draft material. I’ve proven I can write a first draft. I’ve not done so well at getting those drafts revised and publishable. Because of that, I believe my time for participating in NaNo may be through. I need to focus on revision and polishing. That will be a significant part of my writing plans for the foreseeable future.

I haven’t mentioned this for a little while, but have you signed up to join The RandR Fiction Club? Just add your email to the sign up form either on the top bar ribbon or the sign up box in the upper right sidebar. If you sign up before the end of January 1, 2014, you’ll be eligible for a drawing for Stephen Bagley’s Murder by Dewey Decimal, among other things.