The Joy of NaNoWriMo

Folks, the insanity of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) started yesterday. So far, my insanity level has been low because I’ve taken it easy. I had the extreme thrill (NOT) of spending Thursday night in the emergency room with a Satanic kidney stone, so I’ve been a little slow moving the last few days. But I’m not worried. I know what I’m capable of when I get going. I’ve had a 10,000 word day before, I’ve had several 7000 days in the past. So I fully believe that I’ll cross the finish line.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. You cannot work on a pre-existing manuscript - you must start from scratch. Now, in order to do this you need to average about 1666 words per day. So at that rate I should have 3333 today, but alas I only have 2134. No worries. It will all come together.

I’m doing something crazy this time. I’m writing a story that’s been in my head for years and I don’t have a true plot for it, nor an outline, nor a synopsis. This is full-on Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants writing and I love it. I need this. I need the joyful abandon of putting a bazillion words on the page. Some of them will suck (actually, many of them will), but it’s okay. It’s FUN and I really need writing to be fun again.

So here I am in the land of NaNo. Several of my Austin RWA chaptermates are participating too. And many of my Twitterbuddies are joining in the fun. So it’s a wonderful support system and I’m thrilled that November is here!