NaNo: I couldn't resist ...

I've been doing it so many years.  The NaNoWriMo, I mean.  This wild, month long chase of a 50,000 word rough draft novel.  I can't even tell you when I started.  But this year, this year was going to be different.  I swore I wasn't going to participate.

I didn't have a real reason why except I was tired of the challenge, there were other things to do. A NaNo can be real disruptive to the household if it's not managed right and then there is always that feeling you get in your gut if you get behind.

So I was out of it this year. For sure.  No way.

Right.

I signed up two weeks before the kick off, now so excited about the story that having to wait to start typing until today was a cruel fate.  I read No Plot, No Problem - twice.  Read Ready, Set, Novel but opted not to use it; and I got my handy dandy NaNo kit with everything inside to keep me going.

And I bought the purse.  Um huh, You read that right. Every year I buy a purse that I really like and I have it shipped to me. Then I sit the box where I can see it from my work station.  If I pass the 50,000 word mark on time, I get to keep the purse.  If not, I have to give it away.

In my opinion the NaNo is a lot like this.  It's a month long game with yourself to see how far you can push to get the words out. Some days they come easy, flowing onto the page like a gift.  Other days it's like wrestling live chickens with too much noise and a mess all around.  Happily you can find yourself somewhere in the middle. Little treats help.  Little surprises.  "If I just get five hundred more words done I can have that latte from Starbucks."  Add a thousand to that and toss in a scone.

The NaNo is hard.  Very hard.  But as I have come to learn it's ingrained in my brain.  It's fall.  The Halloween decorations are up and it's time for me to start typing.