NaNo! NaNo!

Ok. Yes, it is the month of NaNoWriMo. Those of you who have tried it know how obsessed you can get with penning 50,000 words in 30 day or how burned out you can get in 30 days.

This year my story kept trying to leap onto the pages, and I had to rein it in because my ethics wouldn't allow me to start early. That wouldn't be fair.

So, how far am I? 13,315 words - just 36,685 words short of that 50,000 goal, but I am shooting to make the number of words by November 30.

My story came from a prompt I gave to my high school creative writing students. I find my prompts on line and in books; although, sometimes they are off the top of my head. This prompt was a story concept: A wishing well appears in a town in the middle of the night. My high school English classes were reading "The Monkey's Paw" at the time, and the two ideas swirled in my brain. What if the wishes came true, but there were consequences unique to the wisher and what if one of the main characters couldn't find something to wish for because she thought she had everything. And then, she sneaks a wish and .....?

I'm working on the worst first rough draft; letting my internal editor hide away behind a closed door in my brain. I locked her in there. I also find she has a name and that she must be married to my seventh grade English teacher (He was a grammar Nazi.) and at the same time married to one of my high school theater directors (His favorite phrase was "Do it again!").

So at this time I bid you adieu to go back and work on my NaNo novel.

25 PLUS HOURS AND COUNTING

Yes, it is almost here. What you ask? NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month for those who haven't experienced it yet.

I'm hyped. I was writing on a prompt with my creative writing class about a month ago. It was a prompt that I've done with my classes for two years, but this time I had an awesome idea for a novel for NaNo.

For the first time in the four years I've participated in NaNo, I have the setting drawn in my mind and a sketch of a map drawn. I know my characters and have begun to interview them. I know their troubles and their celebrations. I AM ready.

50,000+ words here I come.

My total goal this year is not to just write the words (for the last two years I had the words on the page, but in such disarray that things didn't make much sense), but to get the revisions made in time to get the manuscript sent out by June.

Heat the coffee, grab the music, get the comfy chair ready, pull the resource books near the computer, grab the note paper and pen/pencil and get ready to write. The race between time and words on the page begins November 1st.