69 more days

National Novel Writing Month is swiftly approaching.  As I sit here typing, I can't help but reflect on the NaNoWriMo's of the past two years.  Cue the harp music and wavy screen effect...

NaNoWriMo 2008 almost didn't happen.  I was three days in before I started and I wasn't very enthusiastic.  I didn't have any ideas but I'd already told a lot of people I was doing it.  25 days later, I had written 54,000 words of A Summer at Thornhill Manner, the story of a kid with a summer job at a nursing home for wizards.  I was proud of some of it but knew I could do better if I planned ahead.

Last year, things were very different.  Gone were the doubts of the previous year.  I started planning over a month in advance.  By the time November 1 hit, I had an outline, characters, and a list of crap I could work in if I got stuck.  I hit 50,000 words by the 16th, winning early, but it took me another month to write the next 38,000 words and finish the thing. I was a lot more confident with Sailors but I still had my complaints about it.

This year, I plan on hitting 100,000 words by the 30th of November.  I've never written anything that big before, much less in a month, but I'm confident I can do it.  Since reading Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Hugh Cook's A Chronicle of an Age of Darkness in recent weeks, a story and a main character are trying to take shape.  I've begun jotting things down but a lot can happen in the next 69 days.

Meanwhile, back in the present, I'm very excited about it being cooler in the next couple days.  Carrie and I will be able to walk with me leaving a trail of back-sweat on the ground behind us.  I've noticed a few trees along the road turning already.  It would be nice if they'd drop their leaves early so I don't have to mess with them in November.