running up that hill

Let's not talk about how long it took me to mess around with this blog layout and have it still look ridiculous.

So, it's National Novel Writing Month and if you've got a calendar handy, you'll notice that's it's the 19th of said writing month. If you use the math NaNoWriMo gives you,  writers should be at 31673 out of 50000 words today. I'm sitting pretty at just over 22,000.

Really I'm going to get to 50000 by the end of this month if it kills me. I've been writing stories since I was a kid and do you know I've never finished a draft? I've got lots of skeleton drafts, and halfway finished stories, and I have completed lots of fan fiction. However, never once, not ever, have I finished a novel draft of my own original work.

I'm twenty-seven years old and quite frankly, it's time I quit mucking about. I love to write. I love creating stories and worlds and characters and weaving together a series of events. Finishing a project terrifies me, I think. The time has come, though. I don't want to get to the end of my life and have nothing to show for my work except scraps and bits I never had the wherewithal to stitch together.

So my NaNoWriMo book this year is about a young woman who discovers that if she gets angry enough she can wield dragon-like powers and properties. (Or the dragon-like powers and properties wield her, depending on which end of her powers you're on.) Because it's NaNo and I decide to write a fantasy, my brain thought it would be a great idea to mashup fashions and social niceties of the 1950's with a wild west-esque atmosphere and maybe a dash of gaslight.

December is for editing, ya'll.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? What's your book about? Have you conquered the 50000 word mountain in the past?

There are still ten days left. Keep writing!