National Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month; there is actually an official organization called NaNoWriMo, which challenges writers to write a 50,000-word novel in the 30 days of November.

Madison is participating with me, although those in the Young Writers program get to choose their own word goal. Madison chose 7500, which works out to 250 words per day. We're taking time each day to sit together, just the two of us, and blam out the novels.

Madison is doing great. She's working on a book called The Storm Lords of Saturn (think I have a fantasy reader?). She's already at 350 words.

I'm doing a revenge novel, of sorts -- I had vowed, at the age of 9, "someday" to write a book with this title: My Father the Health Food Nut. Now, I'm not actually writing my story--my own experiences wouldn't make for a very satisfying plot. But that's okay, it's going to be profoundly satisfying to ME to have carried through on a 31-year-old mission, even if the book never sees actual ink. Here is my synopsis:

11-year-old Georgia, tired of her father's health food fads and obsessive control of her diet, starts her own "organic revolution," patterning it on the original War for Independence.

One's NaNoWriMo account keeps track of the number of words--you paste it in each night and it updates your count. I'm at 2827 and, boy, are Madison and I having fun. Which is, after all, the point.

I'm going to update my word count here each day; it'll help to keep me motivated. I'm going to lose 3 days in the middle of the month for a trip, so I'll have to work extra hard to get there.