I've decided that NaNo scares me. Commencement is less than 3 hours away, and our elaborate preparation period is officially over. It's finally hitting me.

I am so anxious right now that I can't really even think of much to say. Still, I did want to drop in to point out the new feature I added over to the left. It took a little finagling, but I finally got those little jewels over from the NaNo website where they belong and working. Yay!

Hopefully I'll find some words when midnight rolls into NaNo Headquarters, where Jackie and I will be wearing our thinking caps, sipping our "champagne," and with any luck (on my end), typing furiously.

I know I'm hogging this. But I'm very wordy -- and quite anticipatory!! Less than three hours before we're on our way. And now Meg has this trendy little word counter thingamajig to tell the world just how far we've come. We should link our nano profiles to the site too. Today, Meg and I savored our last beautiful hours of freedom before midnight sends waves of inspiration down our spines -- we went shopping. We went to Wegman's for munchies (beverages so we can always be hydrated, baby carrots, chips, and sparkling cider in lieu of champagne, which we will drink tonight), Target for our stylish gear: my newsboy hat (I am wearing it as we speak, and loving it dearly), leggings (they were bought sort of on a whim, and there's a lot of material to work with, not to mention it's a strange something to get used to, but now we love them... and I haven't been able to take mine off yet... I did put jeans on over them, but they're just so damn comfortable!) and, of course, my soon-to-be-fingerless gloves ($1.49 for four gloves!! -- two green, for everyday writing, and two black, for any brooding, morose writing). We stopped into a pet store or two to check out the going rate for guinea pigs and hamsters (I really want two hamsters, we planned it all out) and The Dollar Store for champagne flutes.

The room's pretty much cleaned and stocked and ready to roll. We're just anxious to get through the next coupla hours. Oh my, nano's really here!!

Staring at Mr. Potato Head who will be our current mascot until we get hamsters,
j (is that too hip? can I pull it off?)

Hello again. I thought it best to freshen this site up a bit, considering nano 06 has ants in its pants and is practically here. Yes folks, in roughly 28 hours, novel craziness will set in. Frankly, its a yummy combination of excitement, dread, and scaredy-cat fear, but we'll do the best we can. I've been mulling over some ideas, mainly how to start and how many verbacious (I was going for something like loquacious, and probably should have settled for verbose, but verbacious sounds far trendier and quite hip, so I'll use that) characters I can think up. Whatever keeps the word count climbing.

What's a shame is that I had such a clever little post thought out in my strange quirk of a brain, but it dissipated and retreated to the far corners of my mind long before I decided to hunker down and write something. It was quite humorous, I kid you not.

I'm watching Deal or No Deal and I have to say, it's so addicting. I smell a month full of case-picking, deal-refusing, bald-Howie distractions. You know, something to gnaw on between bags of baby carrots. Speaking of, Meg & I have quite an adventurous afternoon planned tomorrow. It involves Target (elitely pronounced Tar-jay), a hat, some gloves (which I will hack at violently to rid them of fingertips...), leggings (yeah, we are going to be SO stylish), carrots, and other nano nourishment. Please donate to our fund. We are starving artists -- literally -- and are in desperate need of care packages. The larger the better. Thanks and mazel tov and kudos in advance.

I do toy with writing an autobio instead of fiction, especially considering that my autobio is the major project I'm going to have to intersperse with nano. But when it comes down to it, I want to write fiction. I want to build up my own world and, if the mood so strikes, destroy it later. Because I can. So I will.

Trying to think of various eccentric plot points and delicious supporting characters,
- Jackie (but you may call me J-Ro, or Jon Luc, whichever you may prefer)

50,000 words.
30 days.
1 novel.

A simple challenge. Actually, it probably couldn't even be considered a challenge - more like a joking suggestion - from my co-blogger, Jackie, and here I am just days away from starting what could be the next Great American Novel. Or not.

And that's just fine with me. You'd think, being a bit of a perfectionist and whole lot of pathological procrastinator, penning a 175-page novel in a contest that allows no room for compulsive editing and not a whole lot of time for the "I'll get to it eventually" excuse would be quite a problem. After all, there's nothing enjoyable about letting a month of your life become completely consumed with what will, in all actuality, turn out to be a piece of crap. But, you see, there is.

First of all, I have Jackie by my side in this whole adventure. We have the entire next week before us planned in preparation for the great month that is November. Then, once we've hit the ground running at midnight on the 1st, of course, our schedule is chock full of both the fun and ridiculous to help us get through the month with our sanity intact and, with any luck, two wonderful novels.

And, most importantly, I'll be able to throw aside everything that's stopped me from writing in the past and finally get something done. NaNoWriMo was started for the "1-day novelist" and, as one such novelist, I'm prepared to take full advantage.

Wish me luck. Wish Jackie luck. Stay tuned for our insanity, moments of desperation, and bursts of motivation. When we cross the finish line, it will all have been worth it.

Hello blogging world. It's almost 11 on Wednesday night, and you know what that means: the countdown to NaNoWriMo 2006 is officially in full swing. Less than a week people, can you feel the excitement? Well, you probably can't, because you probably aren't all that excited.

But I am. In fact, I'm ecstatic. I remember sitting back at my desk right before the clock struck midnight on December 1, 2005. It was a joyful yet mournful moment -- I had such an unhealthy, not-all-that-sane amount of fun during NaNo 2005, and I didn't want to let that go. My 2005 nano (I will heretoforth not capitalize it, because the tricky combination of the shift and N keys is quite a workout for my little digits) novel, Incendiary, was for the most part worthy of a life of toilet paper. Alright, so that may not be entirely true -- parts of it did surprise me. I loved discovering that I had a subplot or two, and some descriptions/dialogue rather pleased me. It would have been nice to have actually concluded my novel; even after hitting 50k, I neglected to give my characters a proper goodbye.

I'm really excited for this month for a couple of reasons. First, Meg will be my companion in crazy. While hers will fall more on the fictionalized autobiographical side, mine will be pure, sadistic (well, I hope not, but you never know what my twisted mind might think of at 2am after a late night run to Taco Bell...) piece of fiction. But it will be so much fun to have a fellow nano-er at my side. We're turning my dorm room into nano headquarters -- it'll be the purtiest room this side a' Terrace 3. And we've got so many fun things planned: among them, scoping out local cafes (if we're daring, we may even head over to Magical Cult Coffeeville) and staying up til the sun rises (oooh boy).

I know that the month will simply fly by. Waiting for 12am on 11/1, however, is the hard part. Well, that and thinking of the next great American novel. But I'm working on it. In the meantime, we have a calendar to make, a room to transform, and carrots to buy. I would also like to reread No Plot No Problem (every nano-er's guide) and even take a peak at my nano 2005 book to jog my memory of the insanity. All in all, it should be a good time.

We'll keep you posted with our progress, our craziness, and our darling little creative masterminds, so remember this site. Favorite it. Bookmark it. Tell it to your friends. Love it. Need it.

- Jackie (and yes, as you can tell from the previous entry, I have an insatiable desire to tell people what my name is, in all capitals, more often that could be conceivably normal)

MY NAME IS JACKIE