I’m on the NaNo train, and it just left the station

Stephen King said, "I don't think my books would've been as successful as they are if the readers didn't think they were in the hands of a true crazy person. When I start a story, I don't know where it's going."

I know some people started writing at midnight last night since that was the official beginning of NaNo, or National Novel Writing Month. But I didn't start until this morning and I really didn't have any idea of where my story was going until I started writing. So in some ways my book is in the hands of a crazy person, but I have faith that my characters are sane and will keep the story moving in the direction that makes sense to them.

If you're not familiar with the NaNo concept you can go take a look here at the website, but basically the whole idea is to spend thirty days producing a novel that is at least 50,000 words.

You can have ideas for your book ahead of time, but you're not supposed to write word one until November 1 and you have to have 50,000 words by November 30 to finish. And no you can't just type one word over and over.

If you could, I might choose the word Mississippi, just because it's fun to type. [and in my head there's that sing song voice that recites M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I. …but that might just be me]

So, this morning I got up, stretched, did some yoga, had breakfast and started writing a new book.

I've been thinking about the story for a couple of weeks. But today was the first time I met my characters.

I like them. And I have figured out their motivations. I know where the story is going and I wrote the first three hundred and ninety nine words without having to change anything.

So, I was stoked. I wanted to tell someone about how excited I was. My plants listened intently and were green with envy. The friend that I woke up at 9:00am on a Sunday morning listened groggily and then asked if I'd call back and tell him everything again in a few hours.

THEN, I had the great idea of updating my word count to my NaNo profile. To show all of my writing buddies that so far this morning I produced 399 words. Which I think is the brilliance of the whole concept of writing with a bunch of other people all over the world. You have someone to tell about your accomplishments and someone to share any and all angst you're feeling.

I have a bunch of writing buddies but only two had posted word counts this morning by 9:00am. Of the two that had posted ganymeder's word count was 2,514 and inkydigits was 967 so far today.

To hit the goal of 50,000 you need to produce around 1,700 words a day.

So back to work for me. I'd like to get a cushion today if at all possible since this upcoming week will be a busy one.

I'll update my NaNo progress periodically but the blog won't suddenly be about NaNo.

As a matter of fact this Tuesday features a new Ten Questions Tuesday, and Wednesday is my birthday so I'll be posting something interesting for that and as always there will be a Things I've seen Thursdays.

So don't fret, I've been gathering things to talk about and just yesterday I saw a lady's wig stolen by a squirrel for nesting material……[not really just finding out if you're actually paying attention]

Thanks for listening to me talk about jumping head first into writing a novel in a month. And any and all encouragement is welcome. My plants are fun to talk to, but they really don't say much.

So stay tuned, keep your fingers crossed for me and if you want to see excerpts in small chunks let me know, I might be able to post some of the less smutty parts.