The Dark, Grey Month of November–Finally!

The time is upon us once again. The leaves have started changing color, snow is falling in my hometown (but not my home, huzzah!) and my roommate bought an industrial sized bag of tiny candies. That’s right (or should I say write?) sports fans–it’s NaNoWriMo time!

For those of you that have been living under a literary rock for the last decade, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Started in 1999 by the inestimable Chris Baty, NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words in a continued narrative within the 30 days hath November. At this point, the program has stretched far beyond the ‘National’ moniker, with members flung across the globe.

(In fact, somehow I got added to the Africa:Elsewhere regional forum. Trust me–I’m nowhere near Africa.)

Another imperfect element of the NaNoWriMo name is the NOVEL inclusion. The only novel that clock in at 50k are middle grade books. But who cares? I don’t! NaNoWriMo is an opportunity to join forces with thousands of driven, slightly crazy, awesome people moving toward the same goal: something resembling at least the healthy beginning of a novel. That is why, tomorrow night at midnight, I will be sitting in Denny’s with god knows how many NaNoers (rumor has it we have the Denny’s reserved this year!) typing the first sentences, paragraphs and pages of my novel: The Absinthe Gang (tentative title).

Throughout the month of November I will be posting brief, periodic updates on my progress, as well as the occasional excerpt. I find I blog better when I have a focus like this. So, yay! Brief spike in activity.

This year, for the first time, I am going to make a valiant effort to show up to at least two write-ins per week in my area. The write-ins are fellow writers gathering in a room, sitting often ass-to-elbow, and then ignoring each other as we type furiously in our laptops or scrawl in our notebooks until handcramping forces a coffee/cigarette/non-imaginary-hooman interaction break. I think this will be a good way to meet area writers and generally cool kids. (Kids being a non-inclusive term, here.)

Anyone who wishes to buddy up on the NaNo website, my handle is zandila.

Only 28 and one quarter more hours–and counting!

Comic from the awesome Debbie Ridpath Ohi. Check her out!