It's NOVEMBER 1 and You Know What That Means, Right?

November is National Novel Writing Month, and, as I have for the past three years, I'm taking part in the NaNoWriMo challenge. What's that, you ask?

The challenge, for those brave (or crazy) enough to accept it, is to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. Not really any other rules, except it should be a fresh fictional project, begun at the stroke of 12:01 a.m. on November 1 and ended at 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Not one word of the novel itself should be written before November 1, but you can outline, plot, research, do character studies, etc. before then. Or not. (I'm one of the "or-nots," which makes for some pretty hair-raising moments when I run out of ideas halfway through the NaNovel I'm writing.)

At some point (one hopes before 11:59 p.m. on 11/30), you upload your novel (straight or scrambled, it doesn't matter, since no one except you and those with whom you choose to share) for verification of word count, and, if it is at or over 50k, YOU WIN!

And the prize? Ah, the prize! A beautiful, sparkly purple bar under your NaNo name and the rights to brag about it for the next 12 months. Cool, huh?

So, all these words (practicing for NaNo?) just to say one thing: I won't be around much during November to blog or read everyone else's blogs (or to Twitter, or on Facebook, or on LibraryThing, or to read novels, or to get much sleep), so please forgive me for disappearing for a month and please come back on December 1 when I pick up where I left off on my OTHER life that is not NaNoWriMo.

I will be tweeting during November as @Novelst, so, if you are on Twitter, please feel free to follow me (tho I probably won't follow you back because @Novelst is strictly for NaNoWriMo and writing in general), and plan to blog about my NaNo experience on LiveJournal (where I am Storeetllr), in case you are interested in how I'm doing with my NaNovel.

Okay, then, this is it till December. I'm leaving. Now. *poof*