I can’t believe it. It wasn’t my first attempt to write a novel in a month, but this time, I did it! I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days as part of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, an annual tradition. Held every November since 1999, NaNoWriMo provides structure and support to new and published authors alike. It’s a push to write 50,000 words in one month, enough for a novel. Everyone who writes 50,000 words by November 30 is a winner. It’s pretty cool.

I mostly wrote on my phone using Google Docs, one document per day. Ideally, you divide 50,000 by 30 and write 1,667 words per day in November. I wrote every day. Some days I hit the target or more; some days, it was far less. The last five days of November were wild, and I wrote several times a day to make up the word count.  If you have struggled to get writing time in, I highly recommend trying the Google Docs on your phone method. More productive than mindless scrolling and convenient from any location.

I have a lot of editing ahead, but I am happy with my solid draft. I liked jumping into the story every day and bringing my characters to life and kept writing into December.

Here’s the story summary: 

Earth is on the brink of collapse. Billionaires keep the masses addicted to their phones while they hoard resources. Infrastructure is failing, and the electrical grid has become unstable. A mission to Mars is underwritten by a mercurial CEO who sends a team of scientists to search for raw materials to power small, long-lasting batteries.

This manned mission to Mars draws the attention of an alien planet that sees its past in Earth’s future. A young diplomat is selected to make contact.

A landing accident endangers the crew, and the unstable political situation on Earth has left the team stranded without support, running out of supplies and options. Nearly crushed to death when repairing landing gear, mission commander Michael Wang is pulled to safety at the last minute. Sure that the oxygen rationing has made him delusional, he is forced to rearrange everything he believes about space when he comes face to face with his alien rescuers.