An elite and dedicated group of friends of mine this morning got a text message from me much cheerier than I'm usually capable of before noon or so. Spelled out in caps, accompanied by too many exclamation points and by an emoticon so smiley it verged on the pathological, it radiated so much sheer happy that my mobile ACTUALLY FROZE, it was so overwhelmed by JOY. Because today, friends, is the first of November, and that means it's Day One of National Novel Writing Month.
For the uninitiated (you poor things must be so very, very sad!), NaNoWriMo is a yearly challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. It works out to about 1,700 words a day, and it requires a writing pace utterly indifferent to niceties like grammar and quality. This will be the fourth year we've participated, and by 'we', I mean my husband and I and a hardy group of intelligent and funny friends capable of unimaginable feats of literary genius. Every year, we hold weekly write-ins at our flat -- everyone brings laptops, booze and junk food according to taste, and we alternate between an hour of furious typing and an hour of reading out what we've written. It's ridiculously fun.
Of course, this is just the morning of Day One. This, right now, is probably the most optimistic I'm going to feel all month. I'll keep you posted.
Disclaimer: I'm massively sleep-deprived this morning. In a fit of Halloween spirit, yesterday I read some mildly scary things about sleep paralysis and then watched some mildly scary things about horror movies. Then I couldn't get to sleep for fear I'd wake up to a silent and evil figure watching me, and when I did get to sleep, I dreamt about being in a slasher film. Because I'm a wuss, and also because I have trouble with the most basic tenets of cause and effect. As a result, despite two cups of coffee, I'm still not confident that this post is at all coherent. If it is either incoherent or weird, I apologize. In future I promise to wake up before blogging.
"A silent & evil figure watching me" -- Badger? Oh wait, no. He's not evil ... You've just got to put your brain in a box for a couple hours before you go to bed.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason for your joy -- it's not October anymore! And, your parents are coming in 6 weeks! Love you.
Seriously, read that story about sleep paralysis -- yeeeeesh! But yeah, having a big strong Badger there keeps the baddies away. ;)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for Christmas!!
I'm sort of enjoying the "pre-woken-up" blog. Let 'er rip!
ReplyDeleteThere are three things wrong with this blog.
ReplyDeleteOne.... I DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD ONE!!!!! So much back reading and stalking I have to do!!!
Two, HAPPY NANODAY a day late, but still! You having write ins with booze and reading aloud sessions is soooo monumentally unfair, I need to move back to Edinburgh...
And Three? Well I haven't decided on three yet, but I think it has something to do with me not being able to give you glomp tackle hugs being so far away, you and that burly badger of a husband of yours.
I'm going to stalk your blog now.
LUVALUVALUVALUVALUVALUVALUVA!
Jess
*TACKLE HUUUUUUGS* You're the best stalker EVER!
ReplyDeleteGitcher Nano up on Googledocs and share!
When's the first write in!?
ReplyDeleteOh, and it is now my mission to keep you awake at night with my story.
Mwuah-Ha-Ha-Ha!