It's Almost Here!!

NaNoWriMo starts on Friday.

Some of my friends have been getting ready.

They have done their laundry, planned their meals, scheduled their stuff and plotted their story.
Their characters are developed. They know how many days "off" they will have and how many words per day to meet the goal.

I have a different life, and it makes me laugh a little.

I have plans too, but they are plans uniquely my own.

I have a beginning and an ending, but no middle to my story. I have no characters yet, or at least not ones that I can see and hear yet.

I do have a menu plan for the month, but that has little to do with the writing challenge and lots more to do with managing my time and money and sanity. For me there is a certain amount of peace in looking at a calendar and seeing what the menu is instead of wondering at 4:45 what's for dinner tonight.

My laundry has never been done, or my dishes for that matter. There is always more.

My plans include changing in the morning from my pj's into cleaner pj's or my sweats except for our week of vacation and the November black tie event and my son's theater debut. If someone wants to corner the market on black tie pj's, that would be fantastic.

I see a lot of time on my butt, fingers on keys, blurry eyed and sleep deprived. I see pencils and paperclips and lots of notes that don't make much sense. I see a flash drive attached to my being at all times. I predict lots of fluids and munchies. There will be chocolate. There must be chocolate.

My plans include sanity breaks with friends that call and insist I meet them for lunch or coffee or anything away from my screen for an hour or two.

I foresee a lot of vague conversations where I can't really explain the story I'm writing because I'm still not really sure what it is exactly. Probably even some conversations where I can't even really explain all that well what it is exactly that I'm doing in November or why I'm doing it.

There will be a massage and another new hair style, not because I'm trendy, but because I have self-diagnosed hair ADD. It's just hair right? It grows back. Why not change it up? A lot.

Somewhere in there I will eat turkey with my family or my friend family, you know the one, the family you've made in your life out of your friends, or both. Turkey is good and so is family and friends. You should have some of both too.

Toss me some tidbits about your November or maybe some favorite holiday eats. Slip me a photo of a great hairstyle. Pass me a plot twist.