Countdown to NaNoWriMo!

By this time next week, I should have written at least 8,000 words on this year’s NaNoWriMo novel. Like every year that I’ve decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month, I find myself savoring these last few days of freedom from word-count tyranny even as I feel delightful anticipation in getting started.

This is not going to be easy. I work every weekend in November and will be at the CTA conference for four days promoting Hungering and Thirsting for Justice and recharging my spiritual batteries. If I don’t write during those four days, I’ll be 8,000 words behind.

Most weeks, I give myself a “pass” on writing on Thursdays because I spend so much time on the road and working those days. But I can’t afford to grant myself such passes in November. I’ve also typically shirked a lot of my other writing responsibilities for the sake of NaNoWriMo in the past — blogging, researching, submitting, etc. This year, I’d really like to keep all of that up. And with our basement renovations almost finished and getting an office in my new house on the horizon, I’ll be spending a lot of time painting, cleaning, moving, and “setting up shop.” But if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll be able to finish my novel from my new office. I should be writing it on a new laptop by this weekend.

At least I’m not planning a wedding.

But despite all of this, despite the stress I will bring upon myself to do NaNoWriMo this year, I’m still excited. While there’s something to be said about not spreading yourself too thin, there’s also no shortage of excuses not to write. And I’ve always prided myself on not depending upon those excuses too much. I’ll do the dishes and make the bed less. I’ll wake up earlier. I’ll hunker down for a few write-ins. I’ll drink coffee. And somehow in the midst of everything November will throw at me this year, I’ll find the time to write. And if I can’t find it, I’ll MAKE it. That’s what November is all about.