As many of you probably know, November (only one short week away!) is National Novel Writing Month…or NaNoWriMo.
There’s a whole website & movement & sign-up form, of course, for people who want to participate on a massive scale, but sadly, I am not brave enough to officially accept the challenge. No, I prefer to play along in a much quieter, private way.
For one thing, every month is NaNoWriMo for me. 
For another, I suffer from a colossal fear of failure. Public failure, anyway. I mean, how embarrassing it would be if I didn’t reach my NaNoWriMo-required goal in front of everybody. 
To paraphrase The Princess Bride’s Inigo Montoya, I would suffer humiliations galore.
And last but not least, I don’t even know if it’s physically possible for me to write 50,000 words (the NaNoWriMo goal, if I’m not mistaken) in one short month. It’s a dream, certainly, I just don’t know if it could/would ever happen. 
So rather than disgrace myself in front of the world, I propose that I risk disgracing myself only in front of my Darlings of The Dungeon…& anyone who may be lurking in the shadows. (Bad lurkers! Bad, bad lurkers! 
)
To that end, I give you I’ll Try to Write More…or ITryWriMo. 
I am going to try—really, really try—to finish this vampire book by the end of November. I have one more full novella to go, which will be 30,000+ words when all is said & done. It hasn’t been plotted yet, either—eep!—so that’s going to take some time. That won’t make be quite the 50,000 word goal as NaNoWriMo, but it’s going to be close. It’s also a really good goal for me, so I’m going with it. 
I’ll even put one of my handy-dandy word counters in the sidebar so y’all can follow my progress…or lack there of. Whether you cheer me on or mock me every single on of the thirty days in November is entirely up to you. Although, fair warning—Mistress Heidi will exact her revenge upon anyone issuing less-than-kind remarks from the peanut gallery. 
And for those of you who are also writing & would like to play along—either officially through NaNoWriMo or unofficially through ITryWriMo 
—if you e-mail me with your name, project title, & word count goal…& then continue to e-mail me with your word count progress…I’ll happily post a word counter icon & keep it updated for you, as well.
So let’s give this a shot, shall we? I’m nervous, certainly. And maybe even a little nauseous. But I’m going to give it the old Dungeon try!
Who wants to join me? We may end up like this poor little guy in the picture, but at least we will have tried!
I’m willing to cut you a little slack since you write for a living and all…..30K, 50K, however many words you write is great.
Hmmm…was gonna do NaNoWriMo last year, and was doing okay, and had posted that I was doing it and signed up. Then had to publicly back out since I got a revision letter and had to lock myself in my own personal dungeon while I slayed those dragons. (no not THOSE dragons)
I can go with you on ITryWriMo. :-) I’m too far into my WIP to cheat and pretend I did all 50K for NaNo. >.<
So I'm up for the challenge….kind of….sort of…unless I get distracted by something shiny…I mean I'm up for it! No shiny things! Not even Jack's Butt!
Bah! My comments aren’t working! And that last one was so freakin’ clever…
Um…my comments keep disappearing…let’s try again…
Hmmm…was gonna do NaNoWriMo last year, and was doing okay, and had posted that I was doing it and signed up. Then had to publicly back out since I got a revision letter and had to lock myself in my own personal dungeon while I slayed those dragons. (no not THOSE dragons)
I can go with you on ITryWriMo. :-) I’m too far into my WIP to cheat and pretend I did all 50K for NaNo. >.<
So I'm up for the challenge….kind of….sort of…unless I get distracted by something shiny…I mean I'm up for it! No shiny things! Not even Jack's Butt!
Grrrr…my relevent comment steadfastly refuses to post. Shall try again, and where ever the sent and resent comments are ending up in cyber space…sorry about that.
Hmmm…was gonna do NaNoWriMo last year, and was doing okay, and had posted that I was doing it and signed up. Then had to publicly back out since I got a revision letter and had to lock myself in my own personal dungeon while I slayed those dragons. (no not THOSE dragons)
I can go with you on ITryWriMo. :-) I’m too far into my WIP to cheat and pretend I did all 50K for NaNo. >.<
So I'm up for the challenge….kind of….sort of…unless I get distracted by something shiny…I mean I'm up for it! No shiny things! Not even Jack's Butt!
Hmmm…was gonna do NaNoWriMo last year, and was doing okay, and had posted that I was doing it and signed up. Then had to publicly back out since I got a revision letter and had to lock myself in my own personal dungeon while I slayed those dragons. (no not THOSE dragons)
I can go with you on ITryWriMo. :-) I’m too far into my WIP to cheat and pretend I did all 50K for NaNo.
So I’m up for the challenge….kind of….sort of…unless I get distracted by something shiny…I mean I’m up for it! No shiny things! Not even Jack’s Butt!
Well I’m not a writer, but I will be a cheerleader to you all who do decide to take up this challenge, but not the perky, cutesy type–NO WAY! I won’t carry pom-poms, I’ll carry a whip or two and wear black leather (faux leather and not as nice as Mistress Heidi’s)
I promise to keep my peanut gallery comments to anything not writing goal related.
Maisey~ I released your comments from the spam filter (not sure why they ended up there) but now it just looks like you have really short-term memory.
And I’ve added my extra special ITryWriMo progress meter to the sidebar…it throws off the width of everything else, but it’s only for a month, so I think we can deal.
And now…off to start Novella #3 so I don’t embarrass myself in public by not finishing on time. (Which could still happen, but I’m hoping it won’t.
)
LOL. Yep. goldfish memory. But I swear they were just posting and disappearing last night…
Why would they end up in the Spam filter? I can only theorized. #1: Spam is awesome. I mean, I don’t eat it personally, but it’s canned meat, so that’s pretty cool. I mean, emergency rations and all…
#2 I am awesome. It stands to reason that if Spam is awesome, a Spam filter catches things that are awesome. That is why it caught all my comments.
Okay–Maisey’s comments need to come with a warning.
I’ve tried writing challenges before, and they make me twitchy. I can write well if I’m inspiring myself, but with “rules” and “deadlines” and all of those nasty things, I self-implode.
So, yes, consider me a willing member of itrywrimo! Them’s my kinda rules! Woo hoo!!!
A do not drink while reading warning?
Actually, Dee, being drunk while reading my comments might help.
Pam~ Loosey-goosey challenge rules are the only kind we have around here. Like you, Mistress Heidi gets twitchy if people start trying to make her walk too straight a line.
So alrighty…I have added progress meters in the sidebar for Maisey & Pam If you have titles you’d like me to insert or want your goal to be more/less than 30,000 words, lmk & I’ll update. Also remember to alert me to your progress every once in a while so I can update. (It will make it look like we’re actually making progress!
)
And if anybody else wants to play along, just yell.
i,too,will be cheerleader!!!
but i will use the pompons …the whip scares me! 
I’m a cheerleader too.
I know I’d rather have cheerleaders with pom poms instead of whips. Hey, maybe we could get a chorus line of male cheerleaders with “Whip those WIPS!” Written on their butts…
Depends on the type of whip Hollie. The regular whips wouldn’t work but those cat o’nine tails look like pom poms.
The last time I was a cheerleader I was 6 years old. We were called the “French Fries”. Not really sure where that name got started but at least it was better than the term used for boys in 1st – 3rd grade playing basketball – Midgets.
“Every month is NaNoWriMo for me.” Boy, can I relate to that. I did WinoWriMo with Lani Diane Rich in January. I did my own CinciWriMo in April and again in June. And in October. And now I’m doing the real NaNo, too? Clearly, I’ve lost my mind.
I’m starting late because I had/have some other work (the kind I get paid for) to do first. Then it will be all insanity, all month long. And off to Florida in December!