That's What I Think

This year I'm attempting a challenge such as I've never considered before. It's curiously called NaNoWriMo. At first, I had no clue what that odd combination of letters signified. It couldn't have come to my attention (randomly, on the Web, via a social bookmarking link) at a better time though, serendipity at a time I most crave more meaning in my life.

Upon turning 35, an age I've always considered to be a pivotal marker in a woman's life, it seemed it was time for a change. Time to see if I could walk the walk I have enthusiastically blathered on and on to friends and family's endlessly forgiving ears for years.

So, in little more than one week, I plan to join the ranks of thousands of other hand-wringing writers worldwide for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month), an event that has taken place annually since 1999. On Saturday afternoon, I'm heading over to a local bar and grill called Rocky Run to spend two hours with 30 other would-be and veteran novelists undertaking the same goal. I was extremely happy to find a NaNoWriMo-related group here in Columbia, Maryland. In fact, after I contacted the group administrator, I was further motivated after reading this in her email response:

The first year HQ started tracking regional word count, Maryland was the number one region in the world! We continue to turn out a huge number of novels, and together wrote over 7 million words last year. So think of Maryland "wrimos" as the best support group you could have.

How lucky am I to be in this great state?

The object of the contest is to finish a 50,000-word novel in one month's time. The premise? Keeping it more about quantity than quality in order to meet that goal. The hardest task, and yet the most crucial to success, is to keep the nitpicking editor side of myself at bay until the word count is amassed prior to November's end.

And should you desire to earn your own calluses, you can sign up until November 30; but the sooner, the better. This writer was successfully published after participating in NaNoWriMo, so ya never know.