NaNoWriMo (Or, Why I'm Crazy)

In a little more than three hours, the clock will pass midnight, and it will be November.

November, the month where I will stuff myself with turkey, swear to do my Christmas shopping early (but fail to actually do it), and write an entire novel in 30 days.

That last bit is part of National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known among the dorkiest of us as NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write 50,000 words by the end of November. That's 50,000 words that's you've never written before, 50,000 words of totally new material. People around the world participate in this crazy period of literary abandon. In Tampa alone, more than 650 people are registered on the forums. I even attended a picnic with some fellow NaNo participants last weekend - and it was totally awesome (and way dorky).

I am so excited about this month I can hardly stand it. For the next month, the majority of my posts will be about my NaNo. My one words will be from my main character's point of view, I'll post updates as I go, and I'll complain about how I can't believe I'm doing this.

The thing is, whenever I tell people in real life about my participation in NaNo, I get a bit of the crazy eye. People look at me like I don't know what I'm getting myself into, or like this is some kind of crazy even that only NERDS participate in. But I love NaNo because I am getting so much support. There are people in Tampa doing write-ins, where we'll meet for a few hours just to write. Several women in my online book club are taking part, and we've been posting about it for weeks. I feel like, if I don't complete my 50,000 words, I won't just be letting myself down, but I'll be disappointing the people I've been talking NaNo with all along. I know I could write my novel over several months, like a normal person, but I think this is more fun. When I'm done, I'll start my revisions.

So, what's my novel about? Hm...rather than give you a whole synopsis, I'll leave you with this, leaving you in AWESOME SUSPENSE. It's future dystopian. Here's the working title (in the form of the SUPER DORKY banner I made for my book club and NaNo forums, which is why it has the username on it), and the first line (this doesn't count as writing it, since I've had it in my head for days).

My death list has six names on it today.