Wanna learn a secret?

Lately, it seems everyone is going through an angst-y period. Perhaps reading up on the history of the coal industry this morning wasn't the best idea. I didn't quite realize this, but I think I kept at it because it distracted me with other bigger frustrations. But reading about how the planet is dying usually quickly overwhelms me with hopelessness. Looking at cute pictures of puppies and reading optimistic blogs always helps but it hasn't quite done it for me today. So I'm going to focus on something that's really quite exciting to me. And that the fact that it is a sunny warmish day, which means I'll try to take a walk after Shaheli and Colin stop in the cafe for a break.

"Why in the world would you study coal mining history? What does that have to do with anything?" Well, good questions. I doubt I normally would, even though I do find myself frequently looking up random bits of information. But it has relevance, I promise. Until now, it has been a kind of secret. I've only told two people so far - Colin and my best buddy Becca.

I am going to do NaNoWriMo.

There, I said it. Perhaps not that big of a deal. Perhaps the statistics show that loads and loads of people who voice this declaration end up not finishing. Perhaps I don't have such a hot record of sticking with things and getting them done on time. Perhaps I still am a bit afraid that I'll fail or that it's not worth it. Perhaps you don't know what on earth I'm talking about, so I'll pause and give you some help.

NaNoWriMo (not entirely sure how you're supposed to pronounce it) stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. It was thought up by some guy in 1999 who got together a group of friends and they attempted to write 50,000 word novels each. In one month. Perhaps horrible, poorly written, crappy writing, but writing nonetheless. Because the idea is that writing a novel is a "someday" dream for many people. Yet realistically, most people will never write anything publishable. So what? How are you going to ever write a novel when you're frozen in perfection? Just write it! Who cares?

I might not get to the word count goal by the deadline, but I sure will try and I know it won't be a waste of time. I will gain something in return, even if it's just a better understanding of how writers write their books. A couple days ago I signed up for an account at nanowrimo.org.

I'm withholding from talking much about what I'm going to write. Part of it is because I haven't quite figured out a whole lot of the story and because of that, I don't want much direct influence or people giving me their ideas of what my story should be like. This is my story, and they could go ahead and write their own. I probably won't be able to keep it a mystery the entire time though. And I may never let anyone else ever read it.

But I will give you this: it is definitely sci fi slash futuristic. No, no flying cars and aliens yet. Mostly just about a kid in a future I imagine has a strong possibility of happening 50 or 100 years from now. Of course, being who I am, I can't resist wondering and looking up answers to questions such as "What's it like to live in a mining town?"

Nanowrimo (I'm not doing the correct capitalization - harder to type) is November. So I've got just over a month before it starts. And in reality it won't take over my life; it's probably only 2 hours a day, 3 at most. But it will be a big difference and it will be intense. Strangely enough, because this has become a goal of mine, I've focused and created goals for getting there. I don't want to be swamped with too many other things when November 1st rolls around so October is my "getting things done" month. This includes developing a website to at least the point that it's ready to be made public. Colin has been helping me a lot with this. It also includes finally getting a dentist appointment (eek), finishing digitizing my grad school papers, getting to goal posts in my genealogy project, and planning for the trips to San Francisco and Europe. San Fran will happen during November and Europe in December (Colin's sister is over there for study abroad so we will be spending the holidays there with his family). There's also Thanksgiving which will be spent with my family, so I've got a couple things already narrowing down the amount of time I can spend writing. I also hope to find another volunteer outlet by November and I'm always keeping my eye out for jobs.

I'm excited! This should be an adventure!