Getting My Write On

My life isn't complicated enough. I'm going to make it a little harder just to see if I can crack. This may seem a little crazy but if I don't try it now, who knows when I'll get the chance? What is she rambling about now, you're wondering. Only the fact that I've signed up for  NaNoWriMo. What, now?

National Writing Month.

I'll let them tell you: "It's a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

Yup. Things just got interesting.

Now, I know that I'm in the middle of the school year, applying for my MFA and also in the middle of trying to kick start my photography business, if that's what you call it. These are still huge priorities, but I'd be denying who I've always been if I say that I'm no longer a writer or an aspiring one at that.

You can ask anyone who really knows me, I've always been a writer. It seems like I've been writing the same "novel" for over a decade. Well, different variations of the same story. (BTW, I hate saying that I'm writing a novel. It sounds so pretentious, no?)  I think I've been writing it since I was 14. Yani, when did I start blathering about this thing? Anyway, this summer, thanks to my wonderful Morning Pages, I was able to get up to 19,742 words. That's a whole lotta words. But I'm not nearly done. I think participating in NaNoWriMo is going to be the thing that brings it all home.

I post this, not just because it's my blog and I do what I want, but because I need to be held accountable. As they so aptly put it in my welcome letter:

 "Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

Consider this my email. You all need to be my muse. I won't post about this everyday, or if I do, it'll be little snippets here and there. Maybe some excerpts of what I'm writing. Either way, I just need to put this out there so that I don't cop out mid-month when I'm two steps from swan-diving off my balcony.

Oh, and incase you're wondering about my story and want to read an excerpt, check out my page here or you can keep track of my progress via the Writing Project links on the sidebar.

What do you think? Am I coo coo for cocoa puffs? Do you think I can do it?