So there’s this thing that goes on every November called NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple — spend 30 days writing 50,000 words and at the end of the month you’ll have a completed novel on your hands. It might not be anything you’d ever want to show anyone else, but at least you can say you’ve written a novel, which is more than most people will ever say. So even as you read this, writers the world over are furiously banging out words in an effort to actually pull off this feat. And I’m one of them.

Yes, once again I’m attempting to start November with zero words and zero ideas, and end it with 50,000+ words and at least one idea. This isn’t my first time, either (that’s what she said). In 2004 I started my novel, worked on it for maybe 10 days or so, and then gave up, hoping to never speak of it again. In 2005, I tried again and this time I blew way past 50,000 words by the end of the month, and ended up finishing my novel on December 6th or so, with more than 80,000 words. The next year I also had more than 50,000 words by the end of the month, though I never actually finished that one. In 2007, I made a feeble attempt several days into the month, then gave up almost immediately before taking a job that would suck up most of my free time for the next two years. in 2008 I don’t think I even considered it for a moment.

And yet here I am, back for another try in 2009. I like the idea of this challenge because even though there’s no prize and you’re not competing against anyone else, it’s a good way to jolt the creative part of the brain into action. It comes down to a fight against yourself, the worst opponent of all, and what better feeling is there than to be able to face down all your self-doubt and fear and accomplish something that on first glance may seem simple, but on second glance actually seems pretty much impossible? Plus, even though writing is such a solitary thing, it’s nice to know that there are thousands of other idiots out there just like you who are kicking their brains into overdrive to get to their daily word count. It’s like I’m alone in this room fighting the good fight, but I’m not actually alone.

I don’t know how much my job, or my love of bad television, is going to try to screw up this plan. But I’m going to do what I can to write 2,000 or so words a day to win this thing. “Win”, of course, does not mean there’s any kind of prize at the end of this. Doesn’t matter. I want to win anyway. I’ll be posting regular updates in this blog, and maybe even excerpts. This may mean that Happy Friday takes a rest until I’m done. We’ll see how things go. I hope that somehow my updates can entertain you (at least in that regard Happy Friday sets the bar pretty low). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do.