Just Add it to the List of Crazy Things I've Done (or am currently doing)

I've done some pretty crazy things in the past few years.  At least, for me they were crazy at the time.  Putting my life on hold for 18 months to serve a mission for my church in heaven-knows-what corner of the world, talking to people who, at best, only want to me leave them alone and at worse scream obscenities at me for daring to approach them was crazy (though I survived it - strangely enough).  Applying for graduate school seemed a long shot at the time, but here I am two years after the fact and thisclose to being done.  Even applied for study abroad, which was a whole 'nother ball of insanity (I'll let you know how it goes when it's over).  But this next project takes the cake.

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo.

Those Who Know are applauding and cheering for yet another sucker participant in the annual write-a-thon.  Those Who Have No Clue are going "What??"  NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it happens every November.  The challenge is to write a 50,000 novel in 30 days starting on November 1 and ending at 11:59.59 on November 30.  You can't use anything you've written previously - everything has to be from scratch (you can do some outlining and character sketches to prepare, but no writing on the actual novel).  Many of my friends know that I've had this idea for a novel trickling in my head since high school, but very little has ever come of it.  Oh, I've had a few attempts at a draft, but they've all fallen by the wayside like so many... things that fall by the wayside.  I don't think I'll write the story that's plagued me for so long in November (I don't think I can, actually), but it would be cool to write something and actually finish it - even if it's utter crap (in which case I can polish it up after the challenge is completed and it will be awesome).

I've known about NaNoWriMo for a long time, but today one of the librarians when I'm doing my internship was talking about it as a program for the writing group she runs at the library.  I've mentioned maybe joining the writing group just for the heck of it, but today she really got me interested in this.  And it'll be nice to know that I at least made an attempt at it (even better if I actually finish the task).

So, if I go off the grid in November, you know why.  And if you have any writerly inclinations, you should sign up as well.  And please send good thoughts and feelings my direction this fall.

Because I want to write a novel, dammit.