I spent yesterday doing what has become customary on October 31st — no, not giving out Halloween candy (we had no Trick or Treaters!) and not going to a Halloween party. I spent the day cleaning the house and preparing for NaNoWriMo’s start today. I stocked up on groceries and caffeine, did some laundry and loaded the dishwasher — the things I will neglect or leave for my poor husband to take care of while I am feverishly attempting to hit 1,667 words a day to win the month with 50,000 words by December 1st.

This year I’m finishing my work in progress which as of 11:30 last night stood at a perfectly even 30,000 words. (So terrifically convenient for updating word count on the website; so whatever word count you see on the widget to the right? Add 30K and that’s the ms’s total.) This is a hardcore rewrite of an old project, which means 100% of the words are new, 50% of the plot and events are new, and about 5% of the characters’ traits and personalities and attributes are new. I know these character so well. I’ve known them longer than I’ve known some people in real life! But in between the day job and other distractions, I’ve been stuck under 30K on it for a while now. In September I vowed if I didn’t have this novel mostly done by November 1st I would spend NaNoWriMo finishing the darned thing. And that’s what I’m going to do. This is NaNoFinMo for me, dang it, and I will write that last page before December 1st or my fingers will be bloody from trying. (I’m overdramatic. Shush.)

I asked the kind people of the NYC meet-up for NaNo I went to last week and they were unanimously agreed that (1) because writing is what I do all year long anyway, why the heck not take advantage of NaNo and use its community and motivators to help me finish this project? And (2) it’s not cheating, to them, if the words are new. I’m not copy-and-pasting, I am writing the words from scratch from a plot that has been pretty tightly outlined and characters I know well enough to know what they’d do in a dozen of strange scenarios my husband has posed for me (hypothetically). (“Would they think this joke is funny?” “A would, but B would think you were being rude, and C would completely ignore your existence for even trying.”) The kind folks at NaNo don’t recommend going in with a book you’ve already started because they don’t feel like it promotes the true kamikaze spirit of NaNo — but that’s exactly why I need to do NaNo. As much as I adore it, I’ve been dragging on this ms. It needs some kamikaze noveling to happen to it and what better time to do that kind of writing than during NaNo?

Anyway. I’ve written five — FIVE — words as of right this moment, but I’m not planning on sleeping until I get my 1,667 minimum for the day which will undoubtedly happen once I get home from the day job.

Onward!