He did, in fact, find another job–in fact a better job–but it was a scary thing, and freaked me out for quite awhile afterwards.

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I think I’m going to go for it. I thought the point of NaNo was to publically declare to the world that you’re writing so that the peer-pressure would help whip you through the month. Like who wants to say, “I did the first day and then blew the rest off.” No one. And if you lie at NaNo, you’re lying to yourself.

Plus it will give me something to bitch about here on the blog. ;)

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And it worked. I wrote every day, and my story progressed, and I was pleased. And I kept it up until January, when we found out my husband was getting laid off, and I got freaked out and stressed out and depressed and stopped writing.

I’m still working on it, although not every day anymore. (I do actually have a pretty valid excuse: we’re remodeling our house so my grandmother can move in, and trying to do most of the work ourselves.)

But I think the thing about NaNo is that it gets people in the habit of writing, and that’s the only way to get better.

Michelle

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1) I have to move
2) I have a huge conference coming up that I, as president of my writing chapter, has to be on top of my game for

Those might be two giant excuses not to do NaNo. But honestly, I don’t know that I LIKE to do NaNo – I’ve sort of progressed to that whole thing of writing as much as I possibly can every day that I possibly can. Am I being unclear? Probably. I guess I don’t feel like I need another distraction for my writing – and I’d be very tempted to scour the writing forums over at NaNo instead of writing. I think I already spend enough time blogging or surfing the ‘Net (ostensibly for RESEARCH, of course ;)) that I don’t need yet another added distraction.

I hope some of that made sense.

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1. What’s the story about? (50 words or less, please, before eyes glaze over)
2. How’s the word count coming along?

Being asked both of these questions is very useful to me, actually. If I can’t summarize my plot in a sentence or two, then a warning bell goes off. And if I’m behind on my word count? Same thing.

Also, people tend to respect the time I set aside for writing more than usual. Maybe it’s because “50k in 30 days” is somehow more finite in others’ minds than “polishing a draft”.

As for the excerpt, I usually pick out a passage in the first few days, post it in my profile, and leave it alone for the next 25. That’s the extent of my out-of-the-ordinary sharing, and no one has ever noticed!

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How NaNoWriMo Works (in Ten Easy Steps)

1) Sign up for the event starting October 1, 2006 by clicking the Sign up Now link.

2) After creating an account, log into it. Click “Edit Profile” in the top tab, and tell us about your writerly self. Then head to the “My NaNoWriMo” section and add a photo, choose some writing buddies, and pick a home region. This tells our computer which NaNoWriMo Regional Lounge to offer you in the forums, which local events calendar and photo links to show you on the Local Events page, and gets you CC’d on emails pertaining to any wild novelist gatherings going on in your area.

3) Begin your novel-planning procrastination by reading through all the great advice and funny stories in the forums. Post some stories and questions of your own. Get excited. Get nervous. Eat lots of chocolate and pamper yourself in preparation for the fiction-fueled escapade to come.

4) On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.

5) This is not as scary as it sounds.

6) Starting November 1 you can go to your My NaNoWriMo page to post excerpts of your work for others to read, and update your escalating word count.

Therese note: you CAN; I don’t think you have to.

7) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web icon. The adding of your name to the Honor Roll of Winners requires that you send in a version of your novel in text format (scrambled for security) to our site to be counted.

8) This is not as scary as it sounds either, and we’ll post step-by-step instructions on how to upload your novel to our team of superpowered computational robots (flown in from Germany every year) starting in mid-November.

9) Win or lose, you rock for even trying.

10) That’s it! If you have any questions, just check out our FAQs. And best of luck in November!

I hope that helps clarify some things. :)

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I was thinking of doing NaNo for the first time this year, but I don’t know much about it. I guess you are saying that what we write is public?

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As for that ‘secret’ you allude to… you still have that. Nobody knows what you’re writing until you write it. Just because you’re in NaNo doesn’t mean everyone knows exactly what you’re writing. It can still remain The Great Mystery of Kathleen until you publish it. :)

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