NaNoWriMo . . . Say What?

So, I'm taking a break from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to blog about my experience so far with NaNoWriMo.  Apparently, my fingers are not sore from typing so many words yet.  This is my first year participating in NaNo and I had no idea what I was getting into when my friend talked me into trying it out.  Basically, you write a novel during the month of November.  50,000 words in 30 days.  Back at the beginning of October, it did not seem so daunting, but now that I am actually trying to do it, I realize what a disaster I am, creatively speaking.

You see, I am a procrastinator.  So while everyone else was planning out what they were going to write, I decided to figure it out later.  I had plenty of time.  I forgot I had to take an exam yesterday.  Studying for that might have been important.  I procrastinated with that as well.  So, yesterday came and I had no idea for my novel.  So I just started writing randomly to see what happened.  I'm still not entirely sure where the story is going, but at least it is moving.  I learned that I am what they call "a pantser," meaning that I fly by the seat of my pants.  That's pretty accurate.

So why did I decide to do this if I am already freaking out on Day 2?  Easy.  Accountability.  I have started so many writing projects and have never finished a single one (apart from ones I have done for school in the past).  I am afraid to commit myself to these projects.  I am afraid of commitment.  There.  I said it.  Once they are completed, I will have permanently tied myself to them and that kind of terrifies me.  I need to get over that if I am ever going to do anything with my writing.  So I figured that if everyone in the NaNoWriMo community can see my word count, I will be more likely to finish this.  The one thing I'm more afraid of than commitment?  Failure.  Especially failure in front of other people.  I am also competitive and there are promo codes for some cool discounts and stuff if you make it to the end and win.  I hope that all of these things will motivate me to complete this little project that has no title and has characters with no names and is sort of just out there and nonsensical, kind of like this blog post.  I do already have a mini-crush on one of my characters, though.  So that's a plus, right?  We love fictional crushes!

If any of you are participating in NaNo this year, feel free to add me to your writing buddy list.  My user name on there is kentuckyheather.   Also during this break I am going to watch the last horror short from Appalachia Collective, so I will post that blog entry in a little bit.