NaNoWriMo

The gift I got Mandy for our anniversary was indeed a big hit. For those of you who asked, I got her an iPod. She got me two tickets to see one of my favorite bands, Dropkick Murphys. They're playing at the Riv next month. Sweet!

Plus, the Bears and the White Sox won on Sunday, so all the way around it was a good anniversary weekend.

So, there is a good chance that after next Monday I won't be posting much here for about a month. This is because my good friend Dan and I will be participating in the grueling endurance challenge known as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. During the month of November participants in NaNoWriMo attempt to write fifty thousand words of a single story. The idea is not quality, but quantity. In theory, the quality part comes in after November, when you finish whatever you kick-started during the month, and then begin rewriting. I'll have to spend a few hours a day writing in order to meet this goal. (With occasional breaks for things like the Dropkick Murphys concert, or perhaps Thanksgiving. Oh, also, Bears games.) Dan and I are going to get together twice a week or so and write together (or rather, separately, but in the same room at the same time) as sort of a support group.

I am announcing my participation in NaNoWriMo on this blog on the advice of the contest's Bible, No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. In it he suggests that participants inform their friends and loved ones of their goal, so that whenever they see them they will be asked about their progress, and when can people read it, and blah blah blah, as an attempt to shame the participant into getting back to work, just so they won't have to tell people they quit.

I figure I could use all the help I can get.