On October 22nd, 2002, I decided to join thousands of other participants who undertook to write a novel in November. They call it National Novel Writing Month.

Obviously, I didn't write a novel in 30 days, or even the first fifty thousand words of one. But I did get at least the first 10,000 words under my belt during the first six days of November. And I like what I started so much that I have reignited the project again. No, I won't write 2,000 words a day. But I will write. My goal is to finish it before Nanowrimo next year, so I can start fresh on a less important, less ambitious novel (the idea being that it will be easier to write something less important more quickly). And my project is still up here.

It's in web form. Because it's how I work. Because it's what I've had success with. Because I'm attracted to ideas like this. I'm archiving my thoughts, my outlines, my life. It makes sense to write this as a web page. So here I go.

The calendar links take you to all the writing I did that day: both brainstorming/reflecting entries, and the actual fiction writing. The links in the footer divide it up: you can click on "everything" to get to the individual archives (this is the only place you can post comments), "sweat 'n tears" to get to all entries that deal with the process rather than being the actual novel attempt, and "in progress" to get just the work-in-progress. the "final version" link won't be active until what it promises exists...