Bria stared at the NaNoWriMo website, watching as the counter ticked away the seconds before November 1st. Every so often she would open her Evernote, where she’d filed all of her character sheets the weekend before. Her fingers tapped at the arrows keys; the tapping was muffled by the band-aids that covered her nasty paper cuts.

I’m missing something important. I just know I am. What am I missing? What don’t I know? What’s going to pop up in mid-sentence and scream YOU FORGOT TO RESEARCH ME! Her traitorous hand shifted over to the mouse. The cursor moved on the screen to the NaNoWriMo website tab.

00:12:16:09

The counter continued counting down. Bria stared, hypnotised. Only 12 more hours to go.

END SCENE

Halloween pumpkin! Otherwise known as a Jack O’Lantern. I didn’t carve this, but I wish I had. Found it at a website that no longer seems to be working…  Spooky…

It’s Halloween today and it is by far the scariest day of them all. No, not because of the costumes or the tricks that various people are playing on each other in an effort to frighten the bejeezes out of each other. Oh no. This is the scariest day of them all because it is the day before THE DAY… that day that is the start of NaNo. The day where I really analyse my choices and decide whether or not I want to go through with this crazy challenge…

The day when I remind myself that I’m picking up the sweater and thermos that I bought with the money I didn’t have, so I really shouldn’t back out NOW… because then I’ll have to tell people “Oh, yeah, this is my NaNo sweater. What? Oh… No I didn’t actually participate. Pardon? Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be wearing it… but it’s winter and cold and I haven’t done my laundry in a couple of weeks so it’s the only sweater I own that doesn’t smell…”

I really don’t want that to happen.

So, I guess I’ll be attempting to go through with this. I’m excited and yet dreading it at the same time. Luckily, last night I met a bunch of people who are just as crazy as I am. I’m going to consider them my support group for this harrowing time of my life.

It seems that people are doing a NaNo quiz of some sort… they call it a meme, but that contradicts what I think a meme is, so I’m going to call it a quiz. Just to be contrary. And because I can.

A NaNoWriMo Quiz/Survey/Meme

Completed by Asilisis (just in case you were worried someone else was completing it…)

Working title: Untitled – Clara’s Story
Genre: Um… Chick Lit? Romance? Psychologically Introspective? Mental Analysis? Who knows. I know I don’t. Projected Word Count: At least 50K (because that’s the challenge and all)

AT THE START DO YOU:

Have an outline? Apparently, I do. Because I have one. It’s outline-y
Scene-by-scene? Not really, though I have a few scenes planned to include…
Know how it starts? Yes
Know how it ends? Yes
Have your climax in order? Sort of…
Have your main characters yet? Yeppers!
Plan to draw on your experiences? Sort of but not really. I mean, there will be similarities for sure..

IS YOUR WORK GOING TO BE:

Funny? Not really no… but I’m going to try to include some funny dialogue just to keep some of it light
Serious? pretty much, yes. I mean, the main setting is a psychiatric ward…
Sad? Yep. I might even cry while I’m writing. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this in public.
Semi-Autobiographical? Not at all.
Based on another story? Not really, no. I don’t think so anyway. Though I did get part of the premise from an episode of Buffy.

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU PLANNED? HAVE YOU USED:

A paper journal? Not for this one; everything is electronic this time. 
A computer? Why yes, yes I have used a computer.
Index cards? Nope… though I did contemplate it.
Bulleted lists? Yeppers! I love me some lists.
Plot Charts? Not really sure what this is, so I’m going to go with no.
Character Charts? I’m using Character Sheets, is that the same thing?
Character formulas? Are these like math formulas? If so, then no. I did not create my characters with algebra.

ODDS AND ENDS:

Favourite writing resource? hmmm.. my imagination.
A line you would like to use: I have nothing clever to write here.
A scene you would like to include: There are a few I have prepared… None of them are interesting enough to include here, which probably isn’t a good thing.
A concept you would like to explore:  What is real?
A cliché you would like avoid:  The stereotypical “when you sleep you get transported to another world” concept.
A character you would like to use: Kleptomaniac who steals things, hides them, then freaks out about losing something that was “theirs” even though it wasn’t theirs.

FORWARD THINKING:

Do you expect to be able to complete it?  I would like to, but my expectations are low. I hear that it’s best to keep your expectations low.
Do you intend to complete it? I intend to yes…
Would you ever try to publish it? Probably not… and if I did, it would be after extensive editing and rewriting.
What do you expect to get out this month of frantic writing? I would like to get into the habit of writing regularly so that I can continue working on other projects even after NaNo

Well, that’s it then. I hope you enjoyed my answers! Wish me luck for tomorrow… it begins.