National Novel Writing Month

I am sitting on the love seat, watching a bit of TV (the DVR'd debut of White Collar on USA, since you asked), playing with my latest idea and listening to a thunderstorm crackle outside. A cold front is pushing its way through Dallas and setting off quite a bit of thunder and lightning. I'm not facing a window but can hear the water splashing in the courtyard and a clap of thunder just made me flinch enough so the keyboard bounced in my lap.

This idea I am working on is one that I like. I like it a lot and think it could be a good story. So far it's fun to write. Granted, I am only a few hundred words in. My only concern at the moment is the voice that it's asking to be written in. It's somewhat formal and not at all the style that I am used to writing in. But it fits this story well.

The idea was just a little bitty thing when I had my last writers' group meeting. I mentioned that I might use this idea as my National Novel Writing Month project. I've thoght more about that, though. I don't think I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. I've tried it twice and failed both times. And both times I have lost interest in the projects I started. Granted, I did pick one back up but it was more than a year later. The other was a project I'd had in my head for years. I'd stopped and started it over and over and over again. I gave it a shot with NaNoWriMo, hoping, I guess, that I'd get some momentum and that would carry me to the end of it. That I'd finally get it written. I didn't. I made it a little over 6,000 words in and was days off the pace I needed to be on to make it to 50k by the end of the month. Opening the document just now was the first time I'd touched it since I gave up last year.

I don't think I respond well to the challenge. The requirement to average about 1,650 words a day is too much pressure. The words get all tangled on me and I get locked up.

So, I'm not doing it. I'm not taking the project I like with me to NaNoWriMo. I'm sitting this one out and thinking good thoughts to all of the other brave souls heading into November with confidence. You can do it. I know you can. If you are ever in one of those writing binges and you need me to get you something -- water, a sandwich, anything -- let me know. As long as you aren't too far away I'll do what I can to help. My only request is an acknowledgment when you publish that 50,000-word masterpiece.