Trick or Type

So, it's that time of year again. The time when the leaves start to turn colors, kids start begging for Halloween costumes, rain starts to fall, and novelists get a manic gleam in their eyes. The time for candy, sweaters, and write-ins.

In other words, National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us.

I am getting ready, and have been aiming all of my writing tasks towards being prepared for that. I am finishing up critiques that I've had lying around. (Got Phoenix's AD crit finished, and I plan to do Ian's SHOMI chapters ASAP.) I am outlining and plotting and getting into my characters' heads... but not too far, just yet. If I go too far with my outline or get too immersed in the characters' thoughts, it's possible that I'll have a hard time not writing before November 1. Must. Wait.*

Anyone joining me?

~*~

*For NaNoWriMo virgins, the rules state that on November 1 you begin a whole new novel. You can have been planning it for as long as you like, but you don't actually start writing until midnight local time on the first of November. And you stop at midnight local time on the last day of November, assuming that you haven't finished your novel (or 50,000 words) before then. The goal is to finish a 50K novel; most people either aim to finish a longer novel, or to finish the first 50K of their novel. Me? This year I have a project in mind that needs to reach about 85K words, and so my plan is to finish the first 50K next month. It would be lovely, however, to finish the whole thing. Then I'd have more time to revise it before the contest deadline.