UhOhNaNoWriMo

Usually I am wondering what the heck I am going to put in my blog. Well, I certainly have something to blog about today....


In the interests of continuing my sudden urge to bite off more than I can chew, I did something completely insane yesterday and signed up for this year's NaNoWriMo. Lordy, lordy, lordy.


I don't know what got into me. I struggle to write when I don't have an official deadline, but when I do have a deadline I'm hard pushed to even think of a single idea. Usually I wait until there's only a few hours left until deadline, then I quickly put together some sort of ramble and hope for the best.


That's not going to work this time. I mean, yes, I could wait until the last minute, but I seriously doubt it is possible to write 50,000 words in a matter of hours. So this time I have to do it properly. I have to make sure I write around 1700 words every day of November, and when I'm done I have to have a novel of some sort. Crikey.


Right up until the moment I signed up for this madness, I was adamantly against the whole thing. This is not the first year I have heard about NaNoWriMo, and so I knew what it was about. I've always firmly backed away from the project because I knew that it would be next to impossible for me to do it. I have no idea what made me change my mind, but suddenly I just had the urge to do something crazy, and hey presto, NaNoWriMo here I come.


(Realistically, I am going to struggle no end with this. But there's a little part of me that is telling my self-doubt that nothing is gained if I don't try it.)


It's obviously very doable. NanNoWriMo has been going for quite some time, and each year it gets bigger, with more and more people signing up for it. A lot of these people don't make the 50,000 words, granted, but there are people who do make it. I want to be one of those people.


I managed to write a story almost 15,000 words long in three days earlier this year. Of course, I had the whole plot in my head, but still, that itself proves that 50,000 words isn't unattainable in thirty days. I just need a plot, and some characters. All formed fully inside my head within the next week.

I'm doomed.

But maybe not. I never thought I could keep up with a blog, but here I am sailing comfortably towards the end of four straight weeks. I won't deny that there's been a few hairy moments when I was completely stumped for a topic, but I got past these hurdles and have managed to post something every day. Some days were more interesting than others, granted, but even a master blogger will have days where their blog will be little more than a hastily put together ramble. My one regret is that if I had started this just a couple of days sooner, I could have been proudly displaying a NaNoWriBlo badge.


You know, this NaNoWriMo might be the making of me. Indeed, I can definitely feel that urge to be crazy getting stronger. I have a feeling it might kick Mrs. Self-Doubt's ass.


Anyone else want to join the insanity?


If anyone would like to follow my NaNoWriMo progress, my username is ambermarie on there.