And you thought I was talking about Christmas, didn't you?

THINK AGAIN. (You may insert the word "bitches" here if it makes you happy.) I'm not even thinking of December. All I can think about is November... novelling season!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) is a challenge where one tries to write a novel in thirty days. (Well, okay, the word "novel" means "50,000 words of your own stuff" in this context -- which is a bit shorter than most novels. It's around the length of The Great Gatsby, I suppose? Which is nevertheless a very interesting challenge...) I've tried to do NaNo pretty much every year since I was twelve. I heard about it initially through a Xanga dedicated to writing, but my first four attempts were pretty much all epic failures.

Then, last year, I struck gold. The Rise and Fall of Rushalee Cade wrote itself and ended around 57,775 words and thirty days later. The feeling of finishing my first novel was one I can't even really begin to describe fully. It's like a month of drugs minus actual drugs. It was such a release of energy and emotion that I honestly can't wait to write this year.

My vague plot idea (Letters) opens up with a girl about to be made a princess. For the past while, her life has been taken over by this author, who keeps sending her instructions on what to do via letters that fall from the sky. Then, one day, he tells her that he's quite sorry, but he's going to have to kill her off. Of course, Adelaide throws a fit and escapes into our world. Meanwhile, the author tries to kill himself but Callitrope Gonchar, time traveller extraordinaire, is sent to rescue him because his life is vital to the future of the human race...
That's all I've got so far. I'll make more up as I go along.

For any seniors who are looking to do individual actions for government, the Office of Letters and Light is a non-profit that happily accepts donations in pretty much any shape or form. Your support helps them continue their widespread efforts to get classrooms and kids in on the whole deal through the Young Writers site and cool stuff like that. Really, it's a great cause and it's fun, too! Hope to see a couple of you novelling along with me!

www.nanowrimo.org