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This is me doing what I did for most of the evening today: writing. I parked my behind in my easy chair with my lap desk, laptop, and an awesome iPod play list and started pounding out the words. You see, I had already fallen behind in the competition. By the end of the day today, Sunday, November 4th, I’m supposed to have 6,668 words, or so. At the start of the day, I had 1,200 words. I now have 7,200 words. I turned the tide of procrastination and accomplished what I didn’t dare hope that I could, I caught up.

“So what is NaNoWriMo and why are you doing it?”  This is the most common question I get about the idea of National Novel Writing Month (well, it’s really two questions in one).  This is followed closely by “What do you get if you win?”  Well, if you read this site with any frequency then you probably already know what NaNoWriMo is, I have talked about it quite often of late (if you are new here and unsure, please see here).  But why do I do it?  Mostly because I have hopes of some day having a novel published.  I’ve got so much going on in my life (doesn’t everyone) that I don’t typically just sit down and take time to write.  I figure that by having a deadline (November 30th) and a huge group of other people doing the same thing as I am, I might just get something that resembles a book cranked out during the month.

As for “What do you get if you win?”  Well, to be honest, probably nothing more than a huge sense of accomplishment and exhilaration at finishing a novel in four short weeks.  I may be crazy, but I have a pretty large iTunes library, a couple of great coffees to try throughout the month, and perhaps most importantly, a very supportive wife.  I tried and failed last year to finish my book and stopped short at 35,000 words.  I fully intend to finish this year, by hook or by crook.

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