Here we go again . . .

Can it really have been a whole year since the last National Novel Writer's Month? For several years I signed up and then forgot, gave up, had a great idea that turned into a stupid idea, etc. But last year I actually finished! Not only did I write the novel, I did it in record time since I was supposed to begin it on November 1st. We were half way through November before I realized what month it was. I doggedly stuck with it and amazingly not only finished but surpassed the 50,000 words by 30,000 some odd more. Why I think writing that many words is difficult is pretty silly. If you were to count the number of words I utter every single day, divide that number by two you still would have more than 50,000 words! I swear! I really talk that much!!!

Seriously, this year I am at it again. Last summer I became inspired to begin writing a novel on Twitter just to see if it were possible. It is. However, writing short choppy sentences just to fit the number of words allowed makes for a really poor novel. After six chapters I declared the experiment a success and stopped. But the novel needed to continue. Eureka! NaNoWriMo was fast approaching and I had another experiment to keep me busy.

So far I have converted two chapters from third person to first person, reorganized the beginning, rewritten and added to almost EVERY sentence, and finally begun to figure out "who done it". It's all beginning to make sense to me. I have my new NaNo friends to thank. At the kick-off meeting we each took a 3x5 card and wrote a short synopsis of our proposed novel, then passing each card to the right everyone had a chance to make a comment. We continued passing until the cards had completely made the rounds. By the time my card came back to me someone had actually solved the great mystery for me. I was thrilled! At that moment I knew where Timber was headed.

So now I write, and write, and write. I feel like a professional author with my desktop, my carpal tunnel, my aching back, and the coffee rings surrounding my keyboard on the computer table.

Life is sweet.