  So... I'm going to participate in urlLink NaNoWriMo this year. This, quite frankly, scares the pants off me. 50,000 words in 30 days? What the hell am I thinking? That's at least 1,600 words per day! I'd actually have to do pretty much 1,700 per day in order to complete it. (I think it's somewhere around 1,650. I divided it all out, but I've forgotten precisely how much it was...) Now, granted, I type around 100 words per minute, so, if I were just typing things, well... that would only take me 16 or 17 minutes.
*thinks* Ok, so maybe that's not so scary. Even though I won't just be typing straight through and will end up stopping to think, etc. I can spend at least an hour each day on it, which should (theoretically) have me up to speed without a problem. Ok, but still... do you know how long it's been since I've written a story? I mean, a real story? Not just the bits and fragments that come to mind occasionally? I was still in high school (I know, I know, I make that sound like it was ages ago... but seriously, so much has changed in the last 5 years I have a hard time understanding that girl...) the last time I seriously worked on any story.
And, to 'fess up... I've never finished one. Not a real story, I mean. I've done little bits of stories or even some vignettes (I'm relatively sure I mispelled that but I'm being too lazy to go look it up...) , and of course, all my blogging, but... that's really NOT the same. It's scary. And exciting. And... I've now declared myself far, far in advance of the whole thing, which means that I can't back out now. Well, that and the promise I made to urlLink Ilsa that I wouldn't back out. Seriously, I can't. I mean, she's working full time at a hell job, going to school and taking 8 credits (or is it 9? I can't remember? ) and agreed to give NaNo a go with me this year! I've known about it for the last two years and been too chicken to try.
So this year... I'm making the committment in advance. I can start outlining some sort of vague plot right now and getting prepared for it. The only thing I'm worried about is that... well, I have the tendency to start writing instead of just plotting an outline.
The thing is, a lot of my best writing has come out of me generally figuring out where I want my story to go and I see/hear a particular... "scene" (even though I know that's not the right word for a novel) and the words just pop into my head. So I'm trying not to cheat. But still trying not to set myself up for failure by not preparing at all. See what a dilemma I have??
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