NaNoWriMo!

Oh my goodness November is 2 days away.  How did that happen.  Next month is going to be a busy one: Thanksgiving, buckling down for winter and preparing for the holidays (we just bought our first Christmas gift this weekend!!), visiting in-laws and, oh yeah, NaNoWriMo.  Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (November 1 - 30th).  Sure, no problem.  I crank 50,000 words out on a regular basis.  I could probably do that in my sleep.

I am lying.  I am scared.

In preparation, I've been writing up characters and trying my hand at a new method: writing out a short summary of what I want to accomplish in each chapter.  So far this is working wonderfully for me, as I'm the type of person nobody ever wants to proofread because I write all over - I'll write some of the beginning, then I'll skip to chapter 3, then you'll just get cozy in chapter 3 and suddenly you're reading the very end of the book and WHY DOES SHE WRITE LIKE THAT (I don't know, the only reason I've been able to come up with is my brain kinda short circuits when writing, hence the jumping all over like a hyperactive flea).  I've also been realizing the way to a good story is not to start with a moral or lesson, instead, simply create your characters and then turn them loose.  And see what they do.  This is a strange concept for me, since I usually like things planned out well in advance (case in point: we're going down to Portland this weekend and I've been watching gas prices like a hawk so I know whether we should fill up now or wait until Saturday morning) but my writing is the absolute opposite: do everything at the last second, and edit it the second after the last second.  I'm excited to see where this goes, or at the very least what it will teach me (about writing, about my work ethic, about the benefits of caffeine).

Hey this is supposed to be fun, right?  I'll have fun with this if it kills me which it might.