Hell, why not?

I've been meaning to do this for several years, and what better year to bite the bullet than one in which I am already in the midst of moving halfway around the world? I never have nearly enough stress in my life, so I'm going to throw in a bit of self-induced stress.

*takes deep breath*

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year.

For those of you who are not of the writing persuasion, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write 50,000 words in a month. If this sounds completely ridiculous and pointless to you...well...it's a writer thing, you wouldn't understand. In all seriousness, it's meant as a motivator, to encourage writers to get words on paper (or on a screen)...since many of us have a habit of writing, then editing, then writing, then editing...or planning, outlining, planning, outlining, etc....and neither approach is overly conducive to actually finishing a project.

The sticky part is that I have to start a new project for NaNo. I have a few stories on the back burner right now that I haven't started yet, so I may grab one of those. I *might* start my vampire novel from the beginning, since I'm not too thrilled with how it's already started, but I have to double check the rules and see how that goes.

So, the word counter on the left side of the screen will be devoted to my NaNo project. The goal, as mentioned before, is to do 50,000 words by the end of November. Does it look like I haven't made any progress? Duh. It doesn't start until November 1. So, keep an eye on my little counter, and send me all kinds of hate mail if it isn't progressing in a decently progressive manner throughout the month of November.

Expect numerous posts about my progress and frustration, and if you are a NaNo participant as well, post your progress in the comments sections. (How many times can I use variations of the word "progress" in one blog entry?)

So...I have blogged about it, therefore it must happen. I'm committed. 50,000 words by Nov 30.

WTF am I thinking?