NaNoWriMo 2009

I went and did a silly thing: I signed myself up to be a participant in NaNoWriMo 2009.  Part of me wished I'd decided to do this a lot earlier so I'd have a good amount of time to figure out what the hell I'm gonna write about, perhaps an outline of some sort?  But it wasn't until a little less than a week ago that I decided to 'just go for it already!'



I've been aware of the basic idea of NaNoWriMo for at least a few years now - it's hard not to hear about it when you socialize with writers on a regular basis - but every year I forget about it until the buzz once again begins and it's almost sign up time.  And every single time, I say something along the lines of "oh I'll participate next year so I can be more prepared."  Yeah right!  So it dawned on me that if I continue to say "maybe next year" I'm never gonna do it.  And if I can't do that, what the hell am I doing?

The idea is much less daunting than I'd imagined - the hardest part sounds like word output.  50,000 words isn't impossible, but a bit over 1,500 words a day looks a lot smaller than it is!  Oh well, bring it on!  I guess it's probably a good thing that I signed up so late in the game cause now I barely have any time to freak out about it.  I can see how easy it would be to scare myself out of this, or scare myself into panic and end up with horrible writer's block, eeesh.



So I've got my official NaNoWriMo page - feel free to add me!  I even created a separate windows user account called 'NaNoWriMo' that is set up for as little distraction as possible - just me and Word.   I think I'll use that account from now on for writing.  I just now saw the demo for the desktop version of Write Or Die and I really really want it - it's tons better than the online version and it's only $10 - that way, I can cut off access to the internets in my NaNoWriMo user account.  I'm gonna sleep on it.

My main concern for this project is that I'll have a lot of other shit to do in November and stress out about doing this and a good chunk of the experience will be lost - I'm doing my best to get what I can done before the weekend to ensure this doesn't happen.  I'm a busy girl!



But what I'm most excited about is writing a novel!  I'm well aware that what I submit at the end of November will not be a publishable, if even readable manuscript, but it will be 50,000 words or more that I can work with, edit, and draw from after November to complete something I can be proud of.

As for what I'm going to write?  I have no idea!  I have little to no plan right now and it's both scary and liberating.  I will be using an unusual method to figure out what story I'm going to tell - I'm going to use tarot cards (and or some other interesting oracle) to create my outline.  I haven't figured out the details yet, but I think I'm gonna do it tomorrow so stayed tuned!  I recommend any writer invest in a deck of some sort because as odd as it sounds, they're a writer's best friend.

I'll try to keep updating as I go along, and have a word tracker thing-a-ma-jing so you can cheer me on.

Wish me luck and do not disturb :o)




Love M