Journal: 11/01/06

November is here and the lunacy begins. First up, my writing nightmare, later my dream Thanksgiving kills my new book effort—or not? Which will work out best, I wonder.

NaNoWriMo 2006 Begins

Every year for the last five years I’ve waited with baited breath for the beginning of November and National Novel Writing Month. Now, it is finally here and once again, I will blurb out fifty thousand mostly random phrases in hopes of starting December with the structure of a new novel. I have four previous such efforts taking up space on my hard drive waiting with the patience only inanimate, immaterial objects can, for their editing into something viable and possibly saleable. Yet, November remains the magical month, because maybe this November I won’t simply say, "Mission Accomplished" and sink back into the lulling routine of my eventless life without ever changing a word of my new, hard won manuscript.

November is like that for me, initially hope abounds that finally I have a story I won’t lose interest in thirty days later, only to be ended at the finish line successful but feeling drained, my creative mind sucked dry of inspiration and inventiveness, my muse flat as road-kill on a busy trucking route.

Lemming-like, juiced with caffeine, determination and maybe a storyline, I expectantly approach the abyss of crafting yet another drivel-filled novel. Soon enough the euphoria will wear off, as it always does, and the prospect of pounding out another seventeen hundred words will cause me to regret getting out of bed each day. I will remind myself that this happens only one month a year and, with great sighs of resignation, do my best at getting my daily word count, and possibly a shred of plot as well.

I just love the writing life of a proto-novelist. Quiet please, delusional writer at work!