NaNoWriMo...Here We Go!

Sometimes, peer pressure is a good thing.

I think my sister was the first one to mention NaNoWriMo to me this year. I was my usual non-committal self. Unlike my sister, I'm not so good at planning ahead, and given where I was in the progression of my novel, I wanted to make sure NaNoWriMo would be a blessing and not a curse.

Then, at last month's critique group meeting, Jackie asked the group if anyone was participating. The response was hardly raucous and enthusiastic. There were lots of murmurs, but no assents. At that time, November was only 11 days away, however. It was time to make a decision.

So I decided...to think about it. And then last night, impulsively, I signed up.

That seems to be how I do things, at least when it comes to these sorts of challenges. Back in June,
when Rachel Neal issued her 30,000 word challenge to another group of writers, I thought about it for a whole two seconds before e-mailing her that I was in. The time of year was terrible, but I adopted the attitude that I had nothing to lose, and only word count on my work-in-progress to gain.

Now, thanks in part to the progress I made in June because of Rachel's challenge, I'm in the home stretch of my novel, hoping NaNoWriMo will afford me the opportunity to finally complete it. And if I should, by some miracle, reach that goal before NaNoWriMo ends, I know exactly which project needs dusting off.

So, unlike many of my writing peers, I'm not hoping to write a novel from start to finish in November, but like them, I have a plan. Knowing I'm typing away as part of a community of writers gives me the nudge to keep typing, especially when some of them know me by name and can check up on me.

Once again, I'm off on a writing adventure! And, if this one is half as successful as the one I embarked on in  June's, I'll have one more thing to be thankful for just a few Thursdays from now.