National Novel Writing Month

Ok. Here goes nothing.

I have wanted to write a book for years and years now. And I've only told Lovely Wife, who is very patient and encouraging.

A while back, I heard of the National Novel Writing Month quite by accident.

I am a book junkie, and picked up a book one day a while back called "No Plot, No Problem."

This book turned out to be the semi-official how-to book for the National Novel Writing Month held every year since 1999.

NaNoWriMo, as it is referred to, basically encourages people like me, who want to write a novel, but never could get very far in the past.

It's totally based on the honor system, and their are no prizes other than the personal satisfaction of having written the first draft of a complete novel.

It is held every November and requires you to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and 30.

This is a rather short novel, on the order of Catcher In The Rye, 1984, etc. and is just to get people like me over the hump of finishing a first draft.

I have started so many books over the past 15 years or so that I just still didn't believe I could do it.

But the whole thing about NaNoWriMo is that you have to write so fast, and nobody's first draft is any good anyway, so the emphasis is on keeping on keeping on and finishing one with the blessing of not worrying at all about quality.

So, I've actually had the courage to sign up for this year's event, starting Wednesday November 1.

And I'm so unsure of myself that I have already come up with about 4,000 reasons not to go through with it.

That's why I haven't mentioned here that I signed up for it. If I didn't go through with it, well, then no embarrassing explanations would be necessary.

But I decided to put the word out, so that I would put a little more pressure on myself to perform, and go through with it.

At this point, it seems like such an impossible task that I'm not that afraid of it. I feel like I'm suiting up in football gear to play in an NFL game. I don't know enough to be all that scared.

So if this blog suffers over the next month, those of you who actually check in from time to time need to understand that the month of November might see this thing languish a bit in the interest of working on my novel.

That's about all I can say. I'll keep yoose guys posted on my word count. I need to write on average about 1700 words per day to make the 50,000 by the end of November.

I'll at least try to post some pics on here to keep the blog fresh.

Who knows, the act of writing a first draft novel might spark my noggin with inspiration and maybe my blog will get better.

We'll see, and you have been warned. So be patient with me through November.