Gearing up for NaNoWriMo – take four

It’s almost November and, like many writers, that means I’m gearing up to embark on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  This will be my fourth attempt to write 50,000 words – FIFTY. THOUSAND. WORDS – between November 1st and 30th.  Nothing else in my life is slacking during this month.  I don’t get to take a sabbatical from work or being a Mom or being a wife.  I just have to add this gargantuan task into the already crazy mix.  I know it can be done – I “won” the year I was pregnant with baby sister after all.  Although I could argue that life was way less crazy back then with only an eight year old in the house to care for.

In anticipation of the event, my writer’s group met this week and I laid out my rough ideas and got tons of great feedback, as always.  We discussed things I need to remember to think about.  Hard questions were asked, ones I hope I have answers for stewing around in the soup of my subconscious where this story’s been brewing. Brainstorming for things that could happen to make the story different and unique that I’d never considered were thrown around.  I don’t know what I’d do without those three women…

This NaNo feels different.  I’ve got a plot structure and my version of character studies that double as story lines that feel much like a plot.  ME!  A PLOT!  I’ve sharpened my tools and laid them neatly in my writer’s toolbox.  And I’ve committed to both myself and my writer’s group that once I start writing come November I’m not stopping until I’ve got a completed first draft.  Time to step up, grow a vagina and put my money where my mouth is about this writing stuff.  Which I’m sure is why things feel different this time.  It’s the anticipation of knowing that something big might be happening… and hoping you don’t fuck it all up.