Time for the Insanity to Begin

Yep. It's that time again. It's almost November. Now, to most people, November is the beginning of the holiday season. Halloween is just the tip of the iceberg. A harbinger, if you will, of the excess to come.

For me, however, November means one thing. It's novel writin' time! Yep. One novel in thirty one days. It's a great way to drive yourself crazy, actually. I have managed to get through it once before, and wrote a completely egregious novel that I would be horrified if it ever saw the light of day. Really. It's terrible. This year though...this year I had a really good idea. I'm not going to reveal it here, however, until I've started writing it. But I am excited about it.

Some of the ground rules for Nanowrimo, at least my ground rules, are:

1. No reading back - it just leads to attempts to revise instead of writing
2. Set aside a specific time during which to write
3. Concentrate on the writing while you're doing it - don't make half-assed attempts with the tv on, with internet connectivity, etc.
4. If you're feeling the flow, don't stop yourself. Because then you're buying yourself some space for;
5. If you can't get anything down, it might be better to abandon the attempt for the moment. Hopefully, you've bought yourself some time by following rule 4.

Additionally, I usually have a good opening sentence of paragraph worked out in my head so I have something decent to lay down to get me started. Prime the pump, so to speak.

So, I will make an effort to post my progress here, and sort of talk about the process, but please forgive me if I disappear or write short posts. When I'm at the point where I have an excerpt I'm happy posting, I'll direct you to it.