I'm exhausted but it's more from running all over last night taking the kids trick or treating. We live in the country, so we have to drive to all the houses we know, rather than hitting a neighborhood. By the time we got home, I was wore out. We watched Kid Nation and put the kids to bed and then watched the first 3 hours of Ghost Hunters Live! filmed here in Kentucky at Waverly Hills Sanitorium last night.

We went to bed at 11PM, but I was up at 5am to get my stepson off to school. Checked in on email and my favorite blogs and then started on my adventure into my 2nd NaNoWriMo. I have somewhere around 4,900 words already. I don't think I'm done though for today. I'm going to work on it some more until 7. After that I'll be watching Ugly Betty, Supernatural and the last three hours of Ghost Hunters that I recorded last night.

Feeling pretty good right now about NaNo. I've proven to myself I can write a novel in a month twice before- Last NaNo and back in mid-July/beginning of August of this year I did my own personal NaNo and wrote the other. I'm confident I can do this, so right now there's no stress. I'm just waiting for my characters to throw something crazy at me. LOL

Ok, so as of right now, here's how I'm standing-

4,936K/50,000K 

Last year I discovered a great outlet for writers~ National Novel Writing Month.

In September 2006 I had just finally put a finish on my 1st novel that had taken me over a decade to finish. I thought it would take me that long on EVERY novel I wrote because I hadn't been able to sit down and work on my novel continuously in all those years.  Life, work, family, and other things took precedence over my writing, even though that has been my dream since I was ten years old.

That was until I heard about National Novel Writing Month. It's been going on every year since 1999, though the first one occurred in July. I had never heard of such a thing...writing with frenzied fingers in just 30 days to complete a novel at 50,000 words in length. What a concept I thought. My heart raced, my palms got sweaty and I was inspired as I read the rules on their website- http://www.nanowrimo.org/ 

There was no entry fee and the prize was more than any material item you could hope for- it was one of the best reasons in the world- to be able to say you had written a 50k+ novel in 30 days and to be overwhelmed by that powerful sense of accomplishment. Albeit, the novel won't necessarily be perfect and you might even attempt it without even thinking of publication, but for someone who had worked for years to finish just one novel, dreaming of someday having books published, I had to attempt this.

It's a grueling challenge with yourself. Testing your ability to stick it out. To find the TRUE writer in your soul and drag her out kicking and screaming while you tie up your internal editor with rope, twine, duct tape or whatever you might have on hand and gag him with a wad of paper you'd written that he once made you throw away because HE didn't think it was good enough. You tell him, "Listen bub, I have heard enough from you, so stick it where the sun don't shine."

Then you lock him in the deepest darkest closet you can find and try to forget about him...except for maybe giving him the occasional bread and water so he doesn't die during November. You probably will need him when you begin to do edits, after all.

So I set to work. I searched through my pile of ideas and found the novel I wanted to work on. I did some plotting and outline, character investigation, etc and come November, I set to work, typing till my fingers ached and my body begged for mercy. I ate Twizzlers, found writing totems to keep me encouraged- my stone cat, my metallic butterfly hair clips. I wrote like I'd never written in my life and found strength, courage, hope and BELIEF in myself that had never been there.

I hit 50K on the 12th of November. I was ASTONISHED and proud and I'm on the verge of tears right now because it still moves me to remember that I found my true writer last November and it was because of NaNoWriMo. By the end of the month, I had a completed first draft 80k novel staring back at me from my computer screen. Never in my life had I felt more accomplished or proud of myself as the writer I know I am.

In fact, to commemorate my accomplishment- when we went to get our Christmas village in December, my husband pointed out the most beautiful tall lighted Library village piece I'd ever seen. It now adorns our village at the holidays. It's gorgeous and it will always be a wonderful reminder of my first NaNo and all that has come from that change in my life, my change in my view of myself and what I'm challenging myself to now with my life and my writing, as a result of participating.

This year my novel is Haunted Melody and I will be journaling my adventure through my 2nd NaNo here on LJ. Please feel free to come read, comment and share in this with me. And if you think you'd enjoy trying NaNo if you haven't before, be sure to let me know if you join up on the forums and I'll be more than happy to buddy you. If you're already a NaNovelist, feel free to friend me here and at NaNo.

Happy NaNoing everyone- Just 2 more weeks from today!