November Review...

So I take November off from all of my other hobbies. The main downside to that is that it is also one of the biggest holiday gift buying seasons. I have plans next year to get all of my holiday work done by October. I am a huge believer in trying to preemptively strike a problem you can see coming.

But back to the main portion of this post, I am going to say a word that gets many responses: NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

When I tell friends about this I get one of three responses. 1.) You're doing what? 2.) People do this? or 3.) Have fun with that. Then a look like I have managed to sprout a second head.

So I sat down with an extra large cup of coffee, my laptop and Pandora Stations geared to certain emotional states. By the end of day 11, I wrote 46,499 words. I won with 125,869 words. This is my second year winning. They don't tell you about the moments you want to bang your head against the desk, because the words aren't right or the character doesn't want to participate in the scene. They don't tell you about how your fingers get stiff. They also don't tell you how the clock will mock you at four in the morning. But it is all worth it.

It is the ability to say, I did this. I made something. It may not be high lit, but this is mine.