Maybe it is just an addiction, like so many other things.

That is the only logical answer.  As November changes into December, we scramble; trying to finish, trying to complete.  Some will finish satisfied, while others give up hope early.  Come December, there are those that swear they will never do it again.  I was one of those people.

Eleven months is a long time, making it easy to forget the pain and heartbreak.  As the first of November nears, we become giddy with anticipation and hope.  Maybe this year will be different.  The pain wasn’t too bad last year.  Just one more try…

The famous last words of an addict.

Starting at 12 a.m., thousands of repeat offenders joined by fresh blood kicked off National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo to those that compete.  Participants will attempt to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November averaging roughly six pages or 1,700 words per day.

The event began in 1999 with 21 participants and six winners.  This year, over 90,000 have signed up to try their hand at a rapid-paced novel.

“Most really good fiction is compelled into being,” says author Tom Robbins in an email sent to participants.  “It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not be certain of exactly what’s going to transpire on page 2. If you know the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you begin it.”

To find out more about my experience with NaNoWriMo, click “Read the full story.”  Please note, I will post experiences from this year’s competition in the comments of this article.

I first competed in NaNoWriMo in 2005, and won by completing a novel with the working title “An Alcoholic’s Love Story.”  I tried my hand last year while in grad school, and was significantly less successful.  For some reason, I couldn’t decide on which of six novels bouncing around in my head I wanted to write, so I tried all of them.

This year will be insane once more.  I am still a full-time graduate student, I’m working two part-time jobs, and I have some community projects I am working to complete.  My initial reaction was to completely skip NaNoWriMo this year, until a friend in DC informed me she was going to give it a try.  I still was leery, but I came up with a great science fiction idea.  I am not a big sci-fi writer, and I really like the idea, so here I am.

The name of the story is Freelancer.  At the time of this writing, I’ve completed 110 words.  The basic theory is a future society where all jobs are freelanced out, and there is no real “employers.”

That is what I got so far.  Since I wasted 500 words on this article, I’m now off to work on my novel.