November is coming upon us faster than I thought possible. It's still feeling to me like summer just ended a couple weeks ago, but that is quickly changing as I bust out my hoodie sweatshirts and swap out my Rainbow flip flops for more rain-appropriate shoes.
But November doesn't just signify a change in weather and leaves turning color and littering my front lawn. November is also National Novel Writing Month — or for those in the know, NaNoWriMo.
This Web site was created several years ago, and every year in November, thousands sign up in the hopes of writing at least a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Ambitious, eh?
I signed up last year and pretty much flunked out right away. I wrote about 2,000 words and then I got lazy and couldn't find time or decided I'd rather go out to the bars or go to bed than stay up late and hit my word count for the day. Bad writer am I!
I've always been a little lacking in the motivation area, but maybe my shame in failing so early on last year will help me get my butt into high gear this year. I started my second novel more than a year ago, and since then I've been meaning to keep going, because it's a story I feel pretty strongly about. But it keeps turning into one of those "one day" scenarios.
Hopefully, Nov. 1 will be that one day where I dust off the old laptop and crank out thousands of words a day like I know I can.
I've got several friends who have attempted/are attempting this project. A couple have even finished. On the NaNoWriMo Web site you can add people as friends and track their word counts. There's also tons of forum discussions where you can get input on plot, characters, setting, or just ask random questions of others that might make your novel better. It's really a pretty cool thing.
Throughout the month, you plug in your word count. Of course you can lie and say that you've written more, but by the end of the month, you send the whole thing in to them and they verify the word count. I think it's really more about personal glory than anything else.
Last year, almost 60,000 people participated, with nearly 10,000 of them finishing.
I've written a novel before. When I was in high school. Er, well technically I finished it on Valentine's Day of my freshman year of college. That sucker went through about 200 rewrites, countless character changes and endless frustrations.
But the day I could write "The End" on it was honestly one of the greatest days I've ever had. I've never felt more accomplished in my life. Of course, the thing took me three years to write and when I reread it now I can definitely tell that it came from the mind of a 16-year-old. But it doesn't matter, because dude, I wrote a novel. What about you?
And I've always wanted to write another one, and I've especially always wanted one published.
The NaNoWriMo crew basically puts into words why I think this project is such a great idea on their Web site:
There are three reasons.(to do NaNoWriMo)
1) If you don't do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a "one day" event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel." Here's the truth: 99% of us, if left to our own devices, would never make the time to write a novel. It's just so far outside our normal lives that it constantly slips down to the bottom of our to-do lists. The structure of NaNoWriMo forces you to put away all those self-defeating worries and START. Once you have the first five chapters under your belt, the rest will come easily. Or painfully. But it will come. And you'll have friends to help you see it through to 50k.
2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.
3) Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.
So, I'll track my progress throughout the month on here. Assuming I last past the first five days, that is. At any rate, I'm excited to get back into writing, because it's truly one of the only things that gives me pure joy, and I don't seem to do it nearly enough.
I encourage anyone with a passion for writing to give it a try. If you want to add me as a friend on there, my username is purplecrayon01.
So T.R. Knight, aka Dr. George O'Malley on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" said in a statement to People magazine today that he is gay. 
Been awhile since my last blog. Sorry 'bout that. I've been having some creative issues. I'm a writer by nature, but every once in awhile I just get mad writer's block and writing is basically the last thing I feel like doing. 
