It's time for NaNoWriMo... again.

I honestly can't count the number of times I've participated in NaNoWriMo anymore, not since it became less "national novel writing month" and more "national novel writing monthS." I've been doing the November one since 2004, so that's easy enough, but all the ones in between? I have no idea.

And here we are again, on the launch evening of a brand new season of Camp NaNoWriMo. Last November might have been my most painful of all NaNoWriMo experiences so far, but I find myself filling in novel information and cabinmate requests and writing first sentences (blank pages are daunting) and generally wondering why I do this to myself multiple times every year.

It's the thrill of competition, I think, more than anything. I don't count myself a very competitive person--I've never understood sports of any kind, for instance. But when it comes to word-writing, I just HAVE to finish, even through sweat, blood, and tears. There's just something about writing 50,000 words in a month that makes me feel like I've accomplished something, and falling short is not on option (except in 2011 when I was in the middle of writing a 60-page history thesis AND a 400-page English thesis--but I don't allow myself other excuses.)

I've never completed a novel with NaNoWriMo, but the important thing is that I've been WRITING. That's the most important part of a writer's career if you hadn't already guessed, and yet we allow so many things get in the way of it: jobs (or job hunting), reading, household chores, the cat, Facebook, etc. This blog is the only thing I've really been writing since November.

That ends now. I want to be a published author, dangit, and I need something to publish to make that happen.

So. NaNo. I'm going to do Camp NaNoWriMo in April, and I'm going to reach 50,000 words, and then I'm going to write another 30,000 words in the months following, hopefully completing the story I've only half-planned, and then I'm going to edit it, and so help me, by November I'll have polished it enough to feel comfortable sending it off to places.

There. That's my new writing goal. Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? What are your hopes for your writing future?