Madness I tell you. Madness

Hello all...

I am doing it again.
I know, I know....
It's insane.  It's ludicrous.
It is something for which I have neither the time nor the luxury of even doing a good job of it.

But I'm doing it anyway.

I'm doing Nanowrimo again.

Nanowrimo stands for "National Novel Writing Month", and occurs every November.
It's quite simple really.

One sits down at a computer or in front of a thick notebook on November 1st and begins writing a novel.

One writes between 1700-2000 words per day.

And by November 30th one must have achieved at least 50,000 words.

I did Nanowrimo last year (and completed it I might add), and I found that the trick to reaching 50,000 words was to turn my inner editor off.

Usually as I write I'm constantly reviewing what I wrote, correcting it, messing with how the words sound and look and feel.  I spend quite a bit of time rewriting and reinventing whole swaths of what I write.

But to reach 50,000 words in one month, I found that I have to abandon this type of as-I-go polishing, and just let all the words spew forth from my fingertips.  I cannot allow myself to touch the awkward sentences, misplaced modifiers, imprecise adjectives or faulty character traits.

I know it sounds easy, but for a rather neurotic closet perfectionist such as myself, it's a lot harder than it seems.

My house may be cluttered, my clothes wrinkly and my shelves dusty, but gosh darn it all, my writing is as shiny and clear as a shard of polished crystal.

....well, in my mind at least.

Aside from Nanowrimo, we are dropping back into Fall/Winter here in Kyoto.  Bob's mom returned to California on Monday after a whirlwind and lovely 3 week visit.  And just days after she left, winter started to tiptoe back into our lives.

And so, the thick blankets are back on the beds, the fans are being returned to the attic and the house is once again chilly enough to warrant multiple layers of clothing.  Too soon we will be plugging back in our kotatsus and huddling in front of yen-guzzling space heaters.

Time flows too fast folks.  Was it just a few weeks ago I was griping about the heat?  Pah.

Until next time.....