na no wri mo

It's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) and, as if I don't already have a lot on my plate, I'm jumping on this moving train as well. Yay! If you don't know what it is, head to their (extra super slow) website to read up on the details: basically, participants spend all the November writing feverishly in hopes of producing something at least 50,000 words long. You win by quantity, not quality.

It's really just a tool, a trick to keep you writing, and so far it's great. I've got this story about my workplace that I've been trying to write for months and months and months. I've started and stopped over and over, I've tried it from several different angles, I just couldn't get it like I wanted it. But something about the pace and pressure of NaNoWriMo has really shaken something loose. It's like a zen calligraphy exercise. I am writing like crazy and trusting the total *right*ness of every word. I can go back and edit later. Right now it just feels great to leave the nagging, critical voices in the dust. It's like I'm a kid, racing all by myself through a long field, just for the sheer joy of my legs pumping against the ground and the wind tearing at my hair. It feels really good to write with abandon.

I might be blogging a little less, though, and for that I apologize. But I might actually be blogging more. Seems like the more I write, the more I write and that might spill over into the ol' blog. I'll also keep you updated on my word count, if you're interested. So far, I'm at 5797 (that's about 15 pages) and it's only day two! Rock on! Wish me luck.