NaNoWriMo!

It's November 3 (although it will probably be November 4 by the time I get this posted) and you know what that means!

-the year is almost over
-final exams are looming ever closer
-soon I will be 21
-Thanksgiving is soon
-it's getting colder
-it's National Novel Writing Month!

Yes, my friends, we are three (or four) days into National Novel Writing Month! If you're participating, I hope your novel is going better than mine, which, as of this moment, only has a smidge over 200 words. I got a late start. I only get to hang out with my family every once in a while, and one of those times just happened to fall on the first few days of November, so I got a little sidetracked.

For those of you who are new to this wonderful thing, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. This is when a bunch of people focus all their energy into writing a novel of at least 50,000 words before November ends. They log their word count into the website everyday to keep track of their progress. They can also encourage each other and read words of wisdom from successful writers on the website. It's pretty cool! Check it out: nanowrimo.org

I've tried to do NaNoWriMo the last two years. The first was such a dismal failure that I don't even remember it. I think I just signed up on the website and never got around to actually writing anything. The second year, I completely forgot about it until I was halfway through the month and decided to jump in and try to catch up. I got up to 2,429 words. Progress is progress, I guess.

This year, I'm attempting to write the same novel, but I've had another year to mull it over in my head, and now it looks (or will look) a bit different. I remember getting frustrated as I was writing last year because the words I was typing weren't doing what I wanted them to do. Even though I only have 208 words right now, I'm much happier with the way this thing is going.

I got the NaNoWriMo widget! Now my word count will show up on the sidebar to the right of what you're reading right now. If anybody had been clicking around on my site while I was adding the widget, they would have noticed it jumping all over the header and sidebar while I tried to figure out how to HTML. Probably the last time I tried to HTML was ten years ago when I was adding a background and music to my shop on Neopets.

Provided I actually figured out how to HTML correctly, the widget should keep a running total of the words I've written. I'll also stick it at the end of any blog posts I do between now and the end of the month.

Here's to actually getting to 50,000 words this year!

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 208