Poop Shute

I realize I didn't say anything in advance this year, like i have in previous years, but this is NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month).

For the unititated, it's a challenge to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel. The catch is you can't start it until midnight on November 1 and you have to finish prior to midnight on December 1.

Editing and revising come later and can and should take weeks, months or years. But the point of the challenge is to get a good solid start without excuses or limitations of any kind. You are encouraged to write garbage. It doesn't matter what you write as long as you write something. You could have Thor, The God of Thunder smash the roof off of your main character's house, or have a poo-flinging monkey spring out of the cargo hold of the airline flight they are on. There is no reason to not write anything and everything that strikes your fancy. After November you sift through the wreckage of your hastily drawn manuscript and see if there is anything worth working further with.

As a writing exercise goes, I'm learning volumes. I'm learning about not only myself as a writer, but myself as a person. I've delved into painful memories in this writing free-for-all that I didn't even realize were still painful. It's like free therapy!

Anyway, most, if not all, of my writing efforts have been focused on that for the last several weeks, and that is why there has been no news up here, for those few of you who actually stop by here on a regular basis. I'm alive and well, I assure you.

The novel is coming swimmingly. I am calling it a day right now, and I just cleared 36,000 words. It's true, I am a little behind right now, but I'm not worried. John and I are getting together on Saturday for a "Write In" at Xtreme Bean. We will get there around lunch and stay as long as it takes to finish! Much needed beer will take place immediately afterwards. Anyone living here in Phoenix with nothing better to do should come and join us. Or at least stop in and ask us what the hell we were thinking starting a challenge like this.