NaNoWriMo 2.0

I tried doing NaNoWriMo two years ago.

(For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.  It's a program that invites you to sign up--www.nanowrimo.org--and pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  No excuses, no extensions.  The idea is that there's only one thing you need to get your novel written:  a deadline.

I was really excited about it in 2011.  I needed a project.  I needed something to keep me busy.  I needed something to think about besides grief and trying to get pregnant again.  I needed a distraction.

And then something happened in October of 2011 that threw my plans for a loop.  And NaNoWriMo became The Middle of My [Holy Shit I'm So Tired] First Trimester.  I was going to bed at 8:30pm every night.  I was working a brand new full-time job.  I was taking progesterone supplements that made me tired, nauseous, and depressed (not to mention constipated).  I was physically incapable of staying awake enough hours to write a novel.  I petered out somewhere around the end of week 2, having only hit about 15,000 words.

Last year I decided to do NaNoBloMo instead.  I was at the end of my maternity leave, heading back to work but not teaching a class, and I blogged every day of the month of November.

This year?  This year I am working the (same old) full time job.  My energy-sucking fetus has become an energy-sucking toddler.  But I'm tackling NaNoWriMo.

In fact, I'm spear-heading a NaNoWriMo group on campus and trying to get students to join me.  I've also encouraged forced one of my colleagues in the English department to write a novel as well.  And she is holding me accountable by posting a huge calendar on the department bulletin board outside her office, where she wants us to post our daily word count.

So...  if the blog is a little quiet next month, know that I am furiously typing away at this elusive novel.  I don't plan to go on a month-long hiatus from the blog or anything (I kind of need this place) but, you know, I've got a daily word count to meet!  (1,667 words a day, but who's counting?  Oh, wait.  I am.)

Any other NaNoWriters out there?